Have you ever wondered why we spent so many years in school trying to learn mathematical equations that are of no use now? I still can’t figure out why I knew more about wars that had happened hundreds of years ago than knowing how to find my passion and make a career out of it. If you are a fellow Indian, I’m sure that you would have questioned the educational system at some point in your life.
Let me explain why I’m bringing up this topic now. I was reading ‘The Almanack of Naval Ravikant’ yesterday, and I read an interesting statement in the book and it got me thinking.
Naval tells us that about 99% of our effort is wasted at some point. Most of the subjects we learned, tests we took, the practical examinations we were a part of, none of that makes any sense now. Does that mean we wasted our precious time? Not exactly.
As he states on the same page, some lessons are valuable, for example, the value of hard work. But the point that he is trying to make here is that we should know the value of the things that we are investing our time on. It doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do the work, because it is very hard to identify what has value.
In another example, he talks about how people date many others before they meet the love of their lives. Was dating the person waste of time? Maybe in the goal sense, it was, but not in the exponential sense or the learning sense. You learn more about handling relationships and leading a balanced life from all the past relationships that you’ve had and the mistakes you’ve done.
What I’m saying is: when you find that 1 percent of your discipline which will not be wasted, which you will be able to invest in for the rest of your life and has meaning to you- go all in and forget about the rest. – Naval Ravikant
Before he came to this theory, the book talks about the importance of compounding. The process in which small and consistent efforts add up and yield tenfold results. He says that when you find the element that belongs in the 1 %, go all in and work consistently so that the rewards you reap would be satisfying.
It doesn’t matter if the history and geography books were worth the time or not, at this point of your life, remove and refrain from anything that doesn’t provide value. Give your 100% to the things that matter.
Hope you liked this post. Thanks for reading.
Wordsbykenaniah 