Because many people have more than enough resources, but it doesn’t mean they will leverage it. One of the clearest examples of this is young people, students who have twice as much intelligence as other kids, but the other kids end up succeeding because they have fives times as much motivation and drive. They other kids don’t relish in the praises of potential, but instead lean towards taking initiative and away from hesitation.
Rather than wait for a golden opportunity to be given to them, they go out and make their own.
I’ve seen kids write with a level of inventiveness in diction and vastness of vocabulary that I can’t help but envy and get excited by their potential. And yet, rather than the go out and take a joy ride with the Ferrari of a creative gift they’ve been given, they choose to leave it parked in the garage and spend 8 hours of their day watching YouTube.
I used to wonder why. Is it fear?
Or maybe it’s a lack of desire. A lack of drive because there is not enough pain yet, the pain of your life filling more with regret than fulfillment.
Because that’s what happened to me. I chose to finally take writing seriously because I finally recognized the truth that was always right in front of me: I’m not getting any younger, and what I want — to write — isn’t just going to happen by itself. I’m going to have to drag my body over to the keyboard and start hammering away at the keys until I’ve produced something I can be proud of.
“I’m Looking for Resources”
Today I met with a student who sought out a program because of the resources they thought would be available. That’s reasonable. I would want to enroll in a program that offers resources too.
But my hesitation with giving students resources who have this line of thinking is that so many of them think that it’s the resources and opportunity that will make something happen for them. Resources and a good opportunity might make the work easier or scale its success, but it won’t be the work itself.
In my own taking forever to finally sit down and just write, to just get to work, I realized I had all the resources I needed all along. I didn’t lack the resources. I just lacked the drive. I didn’t yet decide to be disciplined. I wasn’t resourcefulness in action.
Just a reminder: resources are nothing without resourcefulness.
