Your Skills Alone Don’t Really Matter

If one really, really wonders about what it is that gets one success, a few facts of the matter pop up.

First, be ready to give a go-by to some of the theories which you believed in earlier. If you are in a creative field, one went by the logic that one should concentrate and hone in on one piece of work – not go by quantity but by quality.

Well, as it turns out, this one idea of ours is all set to go straight out of the window! It really is that one should keep producing, keep our creative mills churning, and something, somewhere will turn out right. Rather than honing one great idea into perfection, try keeping a continuous grind at your work.

You may not get it all the time, but some of the time at least you will hit the zone. What is important in this entire processing is that it is essential to keep getting a feedback on what you are doing. Ask for valuable advice from friends and family, from kith and kin, and then plod along those newly invented and recently-changed lines of action.

Do not keep yourself in an isolated tower while doing your great masterpiece – be it a piece of writing, a poem, a painting, just anything. Rather, keep yourself open to suggestions of those who are going to be your future audience, your readers and viewers.

The above said does not at all mean that one should have some half-baked or befuddling ideas and theories in our work. In fact, this will not work at all. Rather, go in for a series of concepts which you develop further and work them out well and proper into pieces of treasure.

In addition, it is totally okay to not know when you have developed a ‘hit’ and when yours is a ‘miss’, as what writer and thinker Adam Grant considers in his book, Originals. Truly creative people very rarely are sure of what they have done – whether it is acceptable or not. Thus, it is best to rely on an authentic and genuine audience for this.

When we talk about numbers, we actually make a lot of sense. History proves this.

William Shakespeare, and who will not say that he is not one of the best writers of all ages – had written a total of almost forty plays and 150 sonnets! How many of them do we remember? Certainly not even half of them. Or take Thomas Edison. What is totally unbelievable but entirely true is that this person obtained a total of a whopping 2,300 patents in his lifetime. Again, how many of them do we know about? Or rather how many of them were the so-called ‘hits’? What these truly great gentlemen had was numbers on their side.

They had quality, obviously, there is absolutely no doubt on this one score. But, they had quantity too. Of all they have done, not everything is etched out in letters of gold. But, some of it, or rather a lot of it is, yes.

Thus, if you have a ton of work to show, there is some leeway, some good with the not-so-good which one can segregate out. There exists some leverage by which you can balance out those ideas and their extensions which did not work so much, with those which did work.

It turns out the real essence of life-giving theories which comes up is that never give up on work. Keep on plodding. Keep the machines chugging. You are sure to get it right at some point of time. It has also come through that those of us who are highly original, produce our maximum world-changing stuff when we are producing the maximum; When we really peak in quantitative terms of our output.

In addition, this is also the time when our number of hits hikes up in context with the number of misses we have.

Research in this arena has also thrown up another point: creative geniuses are not born as such. They have talent, yes they surely do, but if this talent is given a bigger vent, you get more chances of hitting it right. Again, in simple terms, it is what we have already said before – do not stop your work, try and keep trying till you actually succeed. At the end of the day, there are some pointers, some indicator signals which will help you do well in life.

Getting straight to the pointers.

First, try to be comfortable in your own skin. Try to look for that little iota of happiness and satisfaction in what you are doing. If you are not getting that, try to reinvent what you are doing till you feel happy with it. One of the power secrets of our times is this only – fashion out a balancing act of your inner and outer selves.

If you somewhat at peace – if your inner and outer symmetry tune in with each other – success may just come knocking all by itself as well. This is because this is the time when you are truly the most productive. Thus, keep your harmonies intact – go with the flow of what it is that resonates with your inner and outer you; with what makes you feel fulfilled. Befriend yourself.

After this, if you feel something is lacking somewhere in your efforts, take a good look at your habits. As is said, we are a sum total of all our habits put together. If you feel something is not conforming to the norm, it is fine. But if you find that it is something which is actually hindering your progress towards what it is that you have set out to do – change it, adapt it.

For this, it is important to tell your story to those who make a difference to it; to those who can help you make it better. Discuss with them. Change the course of your life. Go in for some serious self-awareness. Build a fraternal set for yourself with those who will help you chalk out something positive. Something more life-giving; then, self-tune all this new learning of yours; reinvent yourself and your habits towards something more meaningful.

The end game is that for something more fruitful to come out of your life and times, you may need to embrace discomfort. However, do it only temporarily. Work your way around it till you truly achieve nirvana in what it is that you wish to do, albeit by managing and working within the limits of your energy levels.

And if you are trapped in comfort zones you have no idea about, here is to unlocking your comfort zones!