Willpower is often put on a pedestal, but isn’t it overrated? Of course, it’s great to be able to concentrate all your abilities and do things that are difficult, scary or just lazy. Willpower is like nitrous oxide in street-racing cars - you push a button and immediately get ahead. Days, weeks, well, months can still be pushed by willpower. But if the “race” stretches for years or decades, you need a more stable system for moving yourself forward.
Overexertion of nerves and emotions in the spirit of ancient Greek myths is certainly fascinating, but it is better when there is none at all. This resource is limited and unpredictable - today the will is enough, and tomorrow the “tank” is empty. In addition, if you need the effort of a group of people, for example, in business, it is naive to think that at any moment all employees are ready to make a “quantum leap”.
So what is there to lean on? First, it is a skill-an action that has been repeated so often that “the sword has become an extension of the hand.” A true professional, even when drunk, tired or sleep-deprived, may not create a masterpiece, but he won’t ruin a furrow. Secondly, it is technology - the application of scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. This involves reproducibility of the result, no matter who is operating the “machine”. The professional multiplies the power of his skills with technologies of all kinds, from tools and robots to paradigms and ideas.
Still, the perfect pusher is when you don’t need to be pushed. Or rather, something inside pulls you in the right direction without stopping. This pull is in everyone, but not everyone has understood and mastered it. When it does, one becomes unstoppable. Following his pulling, armored with skills and forced by technology, he consistently achieves more than he expected, without overexerting his will and at his own pace.
Sincerely yours,
-Alexander
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