Newsletter
Attitude and Aptitude2022-10-09
“Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence, and energy. And if you don’t have the first, the other two will kill you.”
—Warren Buffett
Your attitude positions you to move forward, grow, and learn in life, no matter where you are and what the external circumstances are. As such, it is even more important than your aptitudes, which can be unused or misused with the wrong attitude.
How can we help individuals, particularly the younger generations, to develop and keep a good attitude?
First, it is important to encourage people to understand that any life success takes time. Put in the time to do and improve something, have patience, and the results will follow. You will be happy. Technology is encouraging people to think everything can be done very fast, and sells itself with some sort of addictive instant gratification promise.
Second, put in the work, put in the repetitions, like in sport. You get out of something what you put into it. Learning and participating in sports, or learning to play a musical instrument, are great lessons for life. Athletics and arts are as important, or more important, to the education of the young as academic subjects. A lot of information nowadays is accessible on demand through online searches and does not need to be rote memorized. But learning to put in the work, and teamwork, are skills that translate to everything else. You will have hope for the future, even when encountering adversity.
Third, find a cause that you are passionate about, bigger than yourself, and that is the best use of your talents, and pursue that, as opposed to just conventional metrics of scholastic and then career success. You will have meaning in your life.
In this way, people will have a durable form of life satisfaction, that is earned, and be net contributors to society. Tracking life success and life satisfaction are something that should be done on a regular basis, by reflection, journaling, and conversations with family, friends, mentors, and therapists. One possible way to do that is using an app we developed, Life x Mind, that is a GPS for your Mind, Life, and their interactions.
Live. Happier. Longer.