I’m 36 now, nearing 37, but if I look back and ask- what have I learnt/realised about/in life, no particular wisdom or epiphany jumps to mind. There is however one fundamental realisation I had quite some time back.
Anything you want to do in life is possible. Anything at all. You just have to do it.
Sounds pithy, maybe, but I do believe it. The difference between what is in our heads/desires and what really is, is measured simply by our actions or the lack of them. I cannot help but be amused, and at times irritated, by people who bemoan- i want to be a writer, oh I want to learn the guitar, I wish I could do what you do, and infinite variations of such.
The blame partly lies in that most deceptive idea- talent or aptitude. It gives people an excuse. ”Oh I’m not as talented as you,” “oh I’m not a genius like you are.”
This allows them to ignore the many hours, the dedicated effort, that one puts into pursuing anything, and that are required to achieve any measure of ability on something. Whatever ability to write/design/code I may possess today is built atop ~20 years of writing, ~12 years of designing and intermittently, ~5 years of coding.
Any reader who is a writer, or a coder, or a designer, is likely to attest to this. None would attribute their ability to some kind of mystical talent, for each would know the effort they’ve put in, and for how long they’ve been doing so. (This is not to proclaim an ungratefulness towards the cards we’re respectively dealt with in life, and it does not exclude personal inclinations towards thankfulness to some divine providence).
I often have people tell me, ”I want to be a writer, how do I go about it?” My response is always the same- ”what’s stopping you?” In fact, all of this is all the more amusing when one remembers that adage we’re all taught in childhood,