Paying the Price: Unleashing Your Exponential Potential

It Will Take Whatever It Wants.

The price is always different, mainly because of our virtues, cultures, DNA, religions, and simple basic behaviours. For example, what it cost me to get a BIng didn't cost some of my mates/peers. Those who were in a class with me knew there was a guy who used to come to class with a blue cooler box full of goodies. He was the best 1st year Engineering student, and I think he later got the degree with Cum Laude. Me! I had a lot of non-school-related issues to manage, e.g., cooking, making new friends, and other village-to-city adaptations. But in the end, we all got BIng degrees after paying incurring different costs.

To get where you want to go, it will cost you whatever it wants. You have to pay the price that is on your quote/bill. We are all dealt different hands by nature. It is just that it tends to take more than you initially imagined, and even more the older we get. There's just too much stuff to lose as we become risk-averse. Changing course has implications beyond ourselves to all those connected to us. For instance, if you want a PhD while keeping a day job, say bye-bye to your social life (Friends, etc). This is what I call exponential difficulty or easiness, as time goes on, it either gets more difficult or continues being easy. In essence, past decisions influence your today, and today's decisions influence your tomorrow.

Nature is somehow consistent and funny on how today we reap the benefits or consequences of something we might have done 5, 10 or 20 years ago. This is the power of compounding, either difficulty compounding or easiness compounding. If you make bad decisions, you are likely going to see more difficulty in your life compound over time.

Human life is too short, before you know it, it is over. When we are young we only have a lot of time and physical potential/strength. The sooner you get real with yourself the better. I think after age 21, you shouldn't be blaming anyone for your misfortunes, not even your poor parent(s) or guardians. Maybe you can in passing mention how bad your upbringing was and maybe has gotten you where you are today but with a glimmer of hope that when you take action, you will succeed. That is, it is now all on you, and trust that if you follow the steps on your plan, it will all be okay. And most importantly, with the government out of mind (Forget the Government). If one fails to take full responsibility for their actions and outcomes, then the future of their offspring will also be as bleak as their past.

Attitudes take a lot of time to build or change because we only have 24 hours to make progress before sleep reset and laziness erases our progress. Developing a habit is really hard. Try developing a habit of reading a book for 1 hour a day. I will wait... (Lifestyle). Also, getting rid of habits, most especially bad habits is extremely difficult. When others tell you about your bad habits that you are aware of, it feels like they are attacking you. But those around us sometimes serve as necessary medicine.

 

Since the beginning of humankind, we've always wished for instant success. Unfortunately, it rarely happens. It usually requires genius, risk-taking, perseverance, and courage. And it takes some time to succeed. The idea is to show up every day and do your honest work with honest effort. That is, unleash your potential and gain some kinesis (Kinetic energy or motion). At a given time, we are either building or expending potential energy in some kinesis. Either you have positive potential or negativity potential (Indefinite pessimist). One way to deal with the negativity of one's mind is to employ learning and thinking.

I think we fail to unleash more of our potential (energy) because we are afraid we will mess up the equilibrium (Our energy-balanced comfort zone) and find ourselves in places we don't know (Likely to be a better and unfamiliar place). Truly, one might be surprised by the familiarity of the unfamiliar. On another note, I think the reason why we hold back our comments and do not write or comment on posts/tweets/IG/etc, is because we are mistaken that our potential is linked to our reputations. This is to some extent incorrect. You can voice your concerns without losing much of your potential. Also, we are afraid of failing to rebuild new potential after unleashing 100% or a little bit more than what we are accustomed to unleashing.

The issue of unreleased potential is we are sort of conditioned to release little potential energy, but hope for greater kinesis. It's the 80/20 rule, that by putting in 20% of the effort, you'll get 80% of the results. But to be a top dog, you need to unleash more than 20% to gain a little bit more of the percentage outcome. What happens if you unleash 100% of your potential? I guess you will be able to finally answer the old-age question, does God exist? 

As time progresses and one fails to take necessary actions, and at a later stage, even if you give it all you got (less than 100%), you won't be able to move the needle. It will look like there are no results for your efforts. If you persevere and do not despair, maybe after a few years you will succeed. An example of this are the homeless waste pickers and security guards that graduate at UNISA with Bachelor's and others with master's degrees. These guys are heroes and kings of "never give-up".

A simple example is the dating scene; if you are a lady and are struggling to meet a mate, it'll get worse the older you get and may need you to cut down your ideal checklist from 10/10 to a 1/10 good enough. If you are post-35, your SMV (Sexual Market Value, and yes, it's a market driven by asymmetry) can not be compared to that of a 21-year-old girl who's still not clouded by 4th-wave feminist ideologies. The SVM of women drops from 30 upwards, while that of men increases, because of their good financial standing, self-confidence and the realisation that he is the price. There will be a separate future monologue on this topic.

In summary, if one refuses to pay the necessary and essential price now, the price will only compound and inflate. The future will be full of high risks and lower prospects for success. It simply becomes exponentially difficult. If you pay the price, it will be exponentially easy, like you own a money printing machine.