I'm good at many things, but struggle in all of them

Transform your interests into true love, then evolve them.

Do you identify with this situation?

• I’m good at math (or other subject), but not expert.

• I’m good at talking, but feel like people don’t understand me.

• I’m good at writing, but still use ChatGPT to fix my mistakes

I’ve mentioned in a previous newsletter that when I was a pre-teen I dreamed in becoming rich. And one of the greatest lessons from that time wasn’t about cash itself, it was about discovering new ways to improve my skills - and make money by applying them in the future.

Let me share a story:

It was summer, I was traveling to a city located on the east coast of my state - a beautiful place, the wind was so refreshing and carried a sense of calmness. While I was there I noticed an opportunity: sell water and soda on the beach.

Why that kid wanted to make that? For the experience! (and ok, maybe the idea of earning some extra money was pretty exciting too 👀)

We live today based on the experiences we’ve got living before. - the author

And that’s powerful! Everything we are now stems from something we lived in the past. Our memories, emotions and even our fears influence a lot in who we’ve become.

Take Steve Jobs, for example. Known for his creativity and innovation at Apple. Jobs shared in his Stanford commencement speech about the calligraphy classes he took in college:

“I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating”

As you can see, he loved that!

Jobs could’ve skipped that classes and learned a lot of other “useful” things instead of wasting time into calligraphy. Maybe he could have thought: “Why study this subject? This isn’t helpful for me and my company”. But he didn’t.

That passion led to the Machintosh becoming the first personal computer to feature a diverse range of typefaces and proportionally spaced fonts - a revolutionary design choice at the time.

Now, back to our discussion: feeling like you’re “good” at many things but not “good enough” at any of them is pretty normal.

There’s another quote from Steve Jobs that I like too much:

The only way to do great work is to love what you do.

And he’s right! The same way he loved calligraphy, he revolutionized Machintosh’s design because, according to him, it was “beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture”.

Think about how hard is to work in something you hate. Now imagine what you can accomplish when you truly love it.

In my opinion, increasing the power of love into the work is the best way to have quality and don’t give up.

We don’t need to be geniuses in everything we like, we need to be good at everything we love. - the author

So if you’re feeling stuck or incapable because you’re struggling in an area you enjoy, take heart. The struggle is part of the process and you will learn something from that, trust me. I’ve been there too (still in some areas), and from my little experience in life, here are a few insights that may help.

1. Curiosity erase the “I’m stuck” feeling.

   Imagine you started to learn something new. You’re curious about that and doesn’t even care if you’re not good enough to understand, you’re just exploring by own interest. And that’s it! When you’re just curious to investigate it’s way easier to keep learning.

2. Progress over mastery.

   We don’t have to be experts in every single topic. The key is focusing on the progress and becoming better than you were yesterday.

   You might say, “But I just want to master one thing. I want to be a better writer - for example”. That’s great! Remember, all the experts started from scratch. They learned, took advices from other experts, refined their skills and gained wisdom through life experiences. They were passioned about their work and never gave up. Instead of comparing themselves to others, they focused on being better than they were before, day after day. And that’s why they’re so great in their work.

3. Passion drives effort.

   Look, when I say “be better than you were before” i’m not saying that you have to constantly criticize yourself for not being perfect. It’s not a race against your own history; it’s about growth, not pressure. Use your past self as a guide, be passionate by the person you are becoming, and be grateful for the person you are today. Being passionate by the process is hard, because the process may hurt. But it’s ok!

   I truly believe that study, work and exercise is the best way to improve anything - you’ll notice that the person you want to become is already within you, growing stronger every day.

If you enjoyed this post, consider sharing it to someone you like and you know that will enjoy it too 😄

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I recently read this post about finding a niche even when you have too many interests. I really identified a lot with these and found interesting to share with you 👇

How to Find Your Niche When You Have Too Many Interests

🧊 Challenge of the week:

• Write in a paper:

  • 3 things you love to do.

  • 3 people that inspires you a lot.

  • 3 things you can say “Hey, I’m good at it!”

• You can do whatever you want with the paper after that. That’s just to reflect about yourself!

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Create more, stress less.

Thanks for reading, see you next week! ❤️