Conquer the impossible?

In the days when I was avidly looking for and reading those self-improvement books (Till I decided that I cannot improve myself? Yes. So?), I was looking for that magic pill that would make me into a whole new me without much effort on my part. What I now think is that this whole business of self-improvement hinges on the idea that people are always looking for a magic wand type of solution to the problem of sorting themselves out. AND, no honest philosopher or psychologist HAS that magic wand. The most that they can do is make it SEEM easy.

Tiru does not even bother to do that, generally. HIS were the times which did not seem to believe in sugar-coating. OR, as some would like to argue, we had already discovered the ill effects of sugar consumption. Anyway, here he goes...

Arumai udaiththendru asaavaamai vendum perumai muyarchchi tharum - Tirukkural

To persist in your efforts, without giving in to feelings of inadequacy is the greatest strength - Loose Translation

Too often you would come across those who would claim that they were by far more talented than the other guy who did better than them in life. For every one case where that success was unjustified, there will be three where the failure of the the former and the success of the latter is merely a question of persistence.

Talent is the ability to think up ideas and solutions AND to implement them. But...think of it this way. UNLESS you think of yourself as CAPABLE to become an entrepreneur, you will not even be thinking up ideas for start-ups OR you will only give them away to someone else to implement it. Whether you are only an adviser or employee OR the owner of the business depends upon your own feelings of the adequacy of your abilities to handle what is needed to handle the pressures of entrepreneurship.

AND, if you think of something as impossible for you to do, do you even apply your mind on solutions to the obstacles in your way? When you see an obstacle as insurmountable, the only solution you think of tends to be to abandon the project with the least loss possible. It is only when you start thinking of overcoming the obstacle that you devise ways for surmounting it. AND you think of overcoming obstacles only when you cease thinking of yourself as being inadequate to the task.

This is how people who are talented can lag behind...by being overcome by thoughts of inadequacy. People with lesser talent, perhaps, but who do not allow a sense of personal inadequacy to stop them from persisting with their efforts...such people succeed.

In short, it is not a magic wand that leads to success. It is indomitable persistence that does.