Some twenty-five years ago when I got serious about my grades in school, I thought success was easy.
If you had told me to read a book on it, I would have told you all I needed to know— Work at it all the time.
Back then my grades were all that mattered to transforming my life, and I conditioned myself to believe that if I wasn’t studying I was putting my future in jeopardy.
That’ll get you moving.
Throwing Hours At It
It didn’t feel great but I got top grades and I got a top job because I worked at it all…of…the…time.
Back then I just threw hours at the problem. I was a hammer, brute force was my tool.
Today I would pick up different tools.
What “Truly” Drives Success?
My grades were mostly exam-based so “success” was contingent on my ability to read and memorize mostly useless information for regurgitation under exam conditions.
For me, that meant countless hours of reading and note taking through the semester, and then exam preparation and review beginning even months ahead of exams.
Back then I had no idea that you can easily train yourself to read fast, nor that you can learn to easily and quickly memorize lists and ideas.
These are basic tools, but I had no idea they existed, when they should be the first thing that you learn in school…
Getting Better Every Day
When I got into personal development it was because I wanted to find better ways to get what I wanted in my career, but quickly it overtook my life.
Once I started, I didn’t know how to not do it anymore.
Reading faster, memorizing lists, whatever. That’s all old hat to me. Once I got deep into learning more skills and making my life better and better, it just became how I live.
I couldn’t imagine not getting better every day.
That’s like skiing, and trying to get worse.