Have you ever felt like you’re running out of time while everyone else seems to be racing ahead?
In today’s world where people are on the internet all the time and see other’s thriving, they feel they are the only ones running out of time.
When I open LinkedIn, all I see is, “Hey, I am getting promoted,” which then makes me think, What am I doing wrong that makes me so vulnerable to failure? All of a sudden, all of my life failures started appearing in front of my eyes, and the things that I achieved went for a toss.
Suddenly I start to rush through my things, start trying new things just to overcome the fear of the fact that I am not achieving what others are achieving in their lives.
If you are like me and you can relate to the things I just said, then the article is for you.
Life Is Uncertain, Embrace It.
A lot of things happen around you, and most of them are noise. Someone is getting promoted, someone is landing in your dream college, someone is making huge money, someone is getting lucky, and then you think, Why me? After so many efforts, I am still standing in the same place.
Let me tell you, life and success are not linear; they don’t follow a straight path. Life is full of uncertainty, and it depends on you how you treat that. In my own life I have failed to get into my dream college, failed my CFA paper once, and had the thought that “If something is wrong with me,” but I have realized now that it’s okay to fail, it’s okay to not get exactly what you want in life, and it’s okay to embrace the failure and keep pushing because
In the age of leverage, one correct decision can win you everything.
Discipline Over Emotions
We all get emotional; after all, we are humans. We feel anxious; we feel scared if things are not going as well as we have planned. When we feel anxious we start doing things quickly and we don’t give enough time to think and later realise that we wasted another precious hours or days.
One thing I’ve learned in life is that the more time you spend thinking things through, the less time it takes to execute them effectively. When you stay disciplined, you’ll know the right moment to take action. However, if you let your emotions dictate your decisions, you may find yourself feeling lost.
In finance, we also study behavioral finance, and we do say things like, “Don’t make decisions based on your emotions,” and it is not a new thing that I am saying for the first time; it has been out there since I don’t know when, but we still somehow let it affect us more than it should. All I am trying to say here is, it’s okay to be emotional and show basic human traits, which are to show emotions, but don’t let emotion affect your decisions.
No one can compete with you on being you, most of life is a search for who and what needs you the most
Listen To Yourself
Again, not something new, but we often forget to prioritize ourselves; it is very important to have empty space in our lives. If you don’t have empty space in your life, you will miss those opportunities that will fit you the best.
It is also important to have one or two empty days in a week in your calendar, where you do nothing—no meeting, no work, no hanging out with friends, just you. When you are alone, you give yourself time to think, and when you think, you make better decisions.
You are not going to make good judgments; you are not going to generate good ideas if you are not giving yourself time, which is taking at least one or two days off. It’s only after you are bored that you have the great ideas. It’s never going to be when you’re stressed or busy. Make the time.
Very smart people tend to be weird since they insist on thinking everything through for themselves
—Naval Ravikant
Never Stop Reading
On the Internet, I see people posting about how many books they read in a particular year; that’s the most stupid thing to see. Reading doesn’t mean finishing a book, and finishing a book never means you learned something. A book rich in value should be absorbed slowly. A writer who has spent his life experiencing things and writing deserves a reader who absorbs what he is saying. You should keep giving the time a book deserves; if it interests you, it deserves your revisit, but if it is just any book, then leaving it in the middle is the option.
In the end, reading books, novels, and blogs will not only help you gain more wisdom, but trust me, when you read, you will find answers to those that are bothering you. In his famous quote, Socrates says, “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing,” capturing a profound paradox: the acknowledgment of ignorance is the first step toward enlightenment. True wisdom lies not in the accumulation of facts but in cultivating humility and an open mind.
As long as I have a book in my hand, I don’t feel like I’m wasting time
–Charlie Munger
Celebrate Small Wins
Amidst all the dreams and success stories, we forget to celebrate the things we have achieved in the journey. When I started my journey to get into one of the best B-schools in the world, my knowledge was very much restricted to zero, and I was not an avid reader nor a person who had critical thinking.
The road that I took helped me to become a better reader and, most importantly, gave me knowledge, philosophy, and many more things with which I can do good things in life. Although the dream for the best B-schools is not fulfilled, I am certainly a much better person now.
A behavioral bias (loss aversion) is very common in finance and the stock market, where “a loss is felt more intensely than the joy of an equivalent gain.” This happens in our day-to-day lives also; you do good all year, and if one thing doesn’t go your way, you start doubting yourself, it happens to me also sometimes, but what matters is that we celebrate our small wins.
Tension is who you think you should be
Relaxation is who you are
–Buddhist saying
Closing Thoughts
Life is not a race. Embrace the uncertainty, celebrate progress, and keep moving forward at your own pace.
These are the few things I have learned in my journey to be a better person. Sometimes I also forget about these principles, so I keep coming back to them so I can stay on track, avoid all the noises around me, and, more importantly, build a career that I have dreamed about.
Reading a lot of stuff has always helped me, and if you want to build a habit this year, I would suggest “Read, read a lot,” and if you like this article, do remind me to read more.
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