Not Feeling Successful? Here’s Why

Does diligence matter? No matter what your field, you've undoubtedly heard that you can succeed if you just work hard and put in the hours. The 10,000-hour rule for becoming an expert at something has been promoted for years, and many people are convinced that giving it their all will pay off. But what if I told you that was all wrong? Sierra 6 from The Gray Man, the world's most proficient CIA agent, gave me the inspiration for this project. It made me wonder: Does someone become the greatest at what they do, like being a top CIA agent, by skill acquired via hard effort or inherent aptitude, or is there another aspect at work?

First, let's examine athletic ability in studies on sports. Even though everyone performed the exact same amount of work, scientists have taken groups of people and subjected them to the same training regimen to see what their results would look like. Interestingly, people who were related by blood saw similar improvement, suggesting that their genetics were playing a role in their athletic potential if your parents or siblings saw amazing results.

as well as these individuals were rated as high responders. Further statistical analysis revealed that about half of the variance in athletic performance is genetic; this means that good athletes are born with genes that can be trained. However, these studies also revealed that people differed in their baseline abilities; some were simply more fit than others, and this was also found to be genetic. In the case of cardio, these genes may have coded for larger volumes of blood, providing an early advantage.

as well as these individuals were rated as high responders. Further statistical analysis revealed that about half of the variance in athletic performance is genetic; this means that good athletes are born with genes that can be trained. However, these studies also revealed that people differed in their baseline abilities; some were simply more fit than others, and this was also found to be genetic. In the case of cardio, these genes may have coded for larger volumes of blood, providing an early advantage.

When it comes to muscle growth, we know that a protein called myostatin regulates the size of your muscles fairly strictly. When your muscle reaches its maximum, myostatin stops it from growing any further. However, some people are born with lower levels of myostatin than others, which allows them to grow their muscles more. The Belgian Blue Cattle, without any special diet or exercise, have incredible muscle mass and are absolutely jacked again. This highlights the highly significant role of genetics and how you can start with a high train ability for a skill a high baseline, or both, or none. Specifically, the cattle have a deletion of the gene gdf8, which just so happens to create myostatin.

In my situation, it's likely that our best athletes have a high baseline, a high train ability, and they push themselves to the limit to reach those potential limits, but there are probably just as many, if not more, people who work just as hard to achieve the same extraordinary results. Don't get me wrong; these people can still improve and even become the best, but their chances of being the best are much lower. Additionally, your circumstances can have just as much of an impact on your potential for greatness as your physical attributes.

Look at these average SAT scores for US colleges, which are out of 800. Interestingly, over 50% of students who graduate from these institutions have the highest SAT scores, while only around 18% of those with the lowest scores do so. Not surprisingly, but now let's examine a prestigious university like Harvard. Here, the students with the lowest SSAT scores are still intellectually superior to the best students at an average university, but their completion rates are remarkably similar: top students account for slightly more than half of graduates, while students with lower SSAT scores account for about 15% of graduates overall.

simply put, we compare ourselves not to people around the world but to our neighbors or people who are in similar circumstances. As a result, students at elite schools compare themselves to their bright peers, and if you're in the bottom half of your class, you're likely to feel inadequate even though you're among the most talented people in the world. This effect can even be translated into real-world success or failure. It's known as the "big fish, little pond effect." a research examining works published by economists within their first six years of practice

Following graduation, research from the top five schools in America revealed that while the top students in the 99th percentile—that is, smarter than practically every other student—were producing an impressive number of publications, the top quarter of students in the 75th percentile were publishing nearly nothing and were essentially failures in their field. However, when we look at the top students from the 30 worst schools, we find that they are publishing more than the top quarter of the best schools in the nation.

In particular, their developmental paths may seem surprising to you, but if we look at this graph of practice time in athletes from childhood, we can see that elite athletes typically devote less time early on to deliberate practice in the activity that they will eventually become experts in. This pattern holds true for most fields outside of sports too. Clearly, your surroundings and peers matter, so even when you put in the hard work, your circumstance and environment can dictate just how valuable all those hours are. Which brings us to the concept of time do super talented people put in more hours of practice or work?

How does this even make sense? Well, it turns out that people who are at the top of their game—be it athletes, musicians, or even scientists—are more likely to go through a period known as a sampling period when they're younger. Rather than being told to pick one area of study and become experts in it, they often try a variety of things, like playing multiple sports instruments or pursuing different scientific fields. It's only later in life that they notice a narrowing focus, increased structure, and an explosion of practice in one area.

This, it is thought, not only provides children with a variety of physical and mental proficiencies from many sectors to draw from, but it also enables them to discover their own skills and discover what they enjoy by trying new things. The best students typically come from less musically active families and are less likely to have an instrument at home. Those who are considered exceptional typically end up being the ones who spread their efforts and explorations more evenly across multiple instruments and only later in life focused on one. Studies on musicians show that sheer amount of practice is not a good indicator of exceptionality.

Even Nobel laureates are 22 times more likely to perform as amateur actors, dancers, magicians, or in other capacities. I would pay a lot of money to watch a nobel laureate do magic. Even well-known scientists are far more likely to be writers, artists, mechanics, woodworkers, or painters. These professions have a wealth of experience that they can draw from, even if some of those pursuits are purely recreational. Specializing and focusing on one area of study only seems to have major advantages.

at the end of the day what does this say about hard work well it's certainly not the main factor to extreme success though of course it plays a role in every expert's path but where and when that hard work comes into play is clearly not set in stone and it's definitely not a direct correlation in skill acquisition research except in really simple tasks that never change this means honestly it's never too late to find something that you love and have a natural ability for and put a bunch of effort into that of course if you already are really good at something it may also help having a little humility knowing chances are you had a bit of luck with your genetics your circumstance and your exposure to many different things