My college education and most of my career I succeeded without trying. I studied and read books in college. Those were it. I succeeded. I graduated. My GPA was above 3.3. I had my best classes earning A's and my struggling classes earning C's. I changed majors from mathematics to economics. My GPA never went down afterwards. I honestly didn't try 100%. I'm confident if I went back in time and tried 100%, my GPA could have been higher and I could have a better college life including more friends, more activities participated, and more experiences I should have experienced in my 20s.
My jobs as a research analyst and business analyst continued my success without trying. One of the major reason I succeed without trying was my jobs were unchallenging. The solutions to problems were easy. My daily responsibilities were too routine. Why did either nobody call me out or I fail to realize I was too good and needed a change? I believe the reasons were my immaturity, my no confidence, my take life for granted attitude, and/or my behavior as a naive adult. I completed anything that was my responsibility, and almost all of the time I accomplished without help.
What Is Trying?
My life has been a collection of successes and accomplishments on the easy road. Life drives me on the short and straight routes no matter what I do. My childhood was one and either move on or done trying. If I liked it, I continue. If I hated it, I quit immediately. Nobody, I repeat, nobody, encouraged me to try again, try again, try again. I'm the master of easy. I start at level 1, then rise quickly to levels 2-4, and then I stop at level 5. If I try really hard, I can continue up to level 10. I don't. I stay at level 5.
My most recent try and quit was Mahjong (Riichi). I played Mahjong for the first time in 2007. I was interested. I researched online to learn more and purchased a book days later. Learning took too much time to learn in detail. I quit. I played Mahjong again in 2009. I liked Mahjong. I practiced online, read better online instructions, memorized the hands, and even purchased my own Mahjong set. I won my first game in July 2010 and my second and third games in May 2012. I learned from my mistakes finishing last too many times between those dates. I didn't quit. I should not have quit in 2007. I missed so many opportunities to play with my friends and maybe meet new people between 2007 and 2009. Mahjong is one of my all time favorite board games today.
Someone told me I "fell through the cracks" throughout my careers. I mastered all my entry level positions I worked, yet I never advanced. I believe a big reason was I didn't try to move upward. Another big reason was nobody gave me a chance or opportunity to move upward that was beyond my control. Regardless, I take responsibility for failing to try harder to advanced my career, open new opportunities, and learn new job skills and knowledge. The lesson is try, try, try. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail. There is no more try and quit immediately.
1 comment:
Thank you for writing this. I absolutely have the same attitude you had: to enjoy life as it is and take it easy; don't stress about whatever that the society forces me to do, but just do what I want and disregard things I don't like to do. I'm a grad in high school now and I foolishly thought this current revelation of "doing whatever pleases me" was a life lesson I learned to live a full life, until I read this. I was probably making an excuse to just enjoy my last year of high school. Thanks for letting me know that I should take more challenges and try to innovate myself.
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