“Why are we good at things?” is one of the most defining questions of humanity. Are we fast because of nature or nurture? Are we smart because of genetics or school? How much of where we are today is because of WHAT we are, and how much is because of how hard we’ve worked? Whatever your opinions on the topic are, the real pitfall is falling into black or white thinking. The truth is in the middle.
Let’s frame the debate in simple sporting terms. An average time for running a 5K is about 27 minutes. In comparison, the world record for a 5K is 12:37. Yes, that’s just a hair over 4 minutes per mile for 3.1 miles. The mistake that we make is comparing ourselves to that world record time. We KNOW that we could never run that, so why bother?
And you know what? It’s true. Statistically, you’re more likely to be struck by lightning than run 12:30. That dude had 1-in-a-billion genetics, and a lifestyle and coaching to match. He’s an outlier. Unfortunately, the existence of outliers leads most of us to resign ourselves to running 27 minutes for the rest of our lives. Here’s the rub. If we worked really hard, we could almost certainly run 17 minutes. If we made that thing a priority for 10 years, we could almost certainly become a 17-minute 5K runner. If we are a little lucky, we might be able to go 16-minutes, or even 15.
That’s HUGE! To put that in perspective, if 27-minutes is average, then 17-minutes means you’re the FASTEST person you know. You might be the fastest person in your town, and you’re certainly in the top-1% of the planet. Are you in the same world as that 12:30 guy? Fuck no. He’d literally lap you TWICE on a track. The tricky part about human abilities and potential is that the spectrum is so fucking vast that the BEST of us can do things that even the GREAT among us can’t fathom. Tragically, the existence of outliers causes many of us to never pursue an endeavor to the limits of our potential because we know, correctly, that we’ll never be the best at it. This fallacy is not limited to sport; we do this in our careers, in relationships, in sports, and hobbies. We know we can never be the best, and instead of striving for good or great, we settle for average, or worse, nothing.
Here’s the “trick”: The process that it takes someone to run 12:30 is the same process it takes someone with less-incredible genetics run 17:00. THE SAME. Get yourself tired through running, rest until you’re stronger, repeat for years. Get lean. Eat well. The process for improvement is identical in any endeavor.
Say you don’t have an IQ of 190 (even though that’s not a great marker, I’ll use it for purposes of argument), will you ever be the richest person on earth? Probably not. But could you be a millionaire? Almost certainly. How? Following the same process as Bill Gates did. Learn, study, try, fail, repeat. I’ve said this in other ways different times: Your potential doesn’t matter. YES, chances are you’ll never be the best in the world at anything. But that doesn’t mean that you can’t be REALLY REALLY REALLY FUCKING GOOD at it through years of hard work.
Don’t settle for 27 minutes. Stop comparing yourself negatively to the best. Learn from them, be inspired by them, but don’t get discouraged that no matter how hard you work you’ll never BE them. Because it’s exactly that truth that’s probably holding you back from being the best YOU could be.
