<story><title>Being OK with not being extraordinary</title><url>https://www.tiffanymatthe.com/not-extraordinary</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thelean12</author><text>There are lots of people reacting to the extraordinary with &amp;quot;inspiration&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;disappointment&amp;quot;, and &amp;quot;jealousy&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d say none of these are as useful as reacting with &lt;i&gt;curiosity&lt;/i&gt;. There&amp;#x27;s an endless amount to learn from the extraordinary in any field or sport or hobby. It&amp;#x27;s easy to write off the extraordinary as naturally talented or lucky or something else surface level. Most of the time it&amp;#x27;s anything but.&lt;p&gt;I play golf. It&amp;#x27;s a game that can be extraordinarily frustrating to beginners. It often takes years of hard work to just be moderately adequate at the game. Going into it with disappointment or jealousy of extraordinary golfers will quickly lead them to quit as they&amp;#x27;ll be way too stressed out to enjoy the game. Those who go into it with inspiration or admiration of those who are better won&amp;#x27;t be able to sustain it when the inspiration burns out.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Curiosity&lt;/i&gt; is the only emotion I&amp;#x27;ve found that is sustainable. Endless curiosity as you try to figure out and piece together what makes someone good at what they do. It&amp;#x27;s an emotion that sustains because it&amp;#x27;s the only emotion that is useful both when you hit a bad shot and when you hit a good shot. It&amp;#x27;s useful both when you watch someone who is worse than you, and when you watch someone who is better than you.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>munificent</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; Curiosity is the only emotion I&amp;#x27;ve found that is sustainable.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The other one I know is gratitude.&lt;p&gt;When I&amp;#x27;m in the right headspace, instead of being intimidated or jealous of the accomplishments of others, I&amp;#x27;m grateful that they shared those accomplishments with us all, and that I&amp;#x27;m able to learn from them.&lt;p&gt;Half the time when I watch Jacques Pepin, I think that I&amp;#x27;ll never make an omelet that good. But the other half the time, I&amp;#x27;m so thankful that he&amp;#x27;s shown me how to make mine better than they ever were before.</text></comment>
<story><title>Being OK with not being extraordinary</title><url>https://www.tiffanymatthe.com/not-extraordinary</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>thelean12</author><text>There are lots of people reacting to the extraordinary with &amp;quot;inspiration&amp;quot;, &amp;quot;disappointment&amp;quot;, and &amp;quot;jealousy&amp;quot;.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d say none of these are as useful as reacting with &lt;i&gt;curiosity&lt;/i&gt;. There&amp;#x27;s an endless amount to learn from the extraordinary in any field or sport or hobby. It&amp;#x27;s easy to write off the extraordinary as naturally talented or lucky or something else surface level. Most of the time it&amp;#x27;s anything but.&lt;p&gt;I play golf. It&amp;#x27;s a game that can be extraordinarily frustrating to beginners. It often takes years of hard work to just be moderately adequate at the game. Going into it with disappointment or jealousy of extraordinary golfers will quickly lead them to quit as they&amp;#x27;ll be way too stressed out to enjoy the game. Those who go into it with inspiration or admiration of those who are better won&amp;#x27;t be able to sustain it when the inspiration burns out.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Curiosity&lt;/i&gt; is the only emotion I&amp;#x27;ve found that is sustainable. Endless curiosity as you try to figure out and piece together what makes someone good at what they do. It&amp;#x27;s an emotion that sustains because it&amp;#x27;s the only emotion that is useful both when you hit a bad shot and when you hit a good shot. It&amp;#x27;s useful both when you watch someone who is worse than you, and when you watch someone who is better than you.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>PaulStatezny</author><text>Disclaimer: I ask this to explore the truth in your comment, not to be pedantic about your choice of terms.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Curiosity is the only emotion I&amp;#x27;ve found that&amp;#x27;s sustainable.&lt;p&gt;It jumped out at me that curiosity technically isn&amp;#x27;t an emotion, but might be better labeled a state of mind. So the natural follow-up question for me is: What are some ways to help oneself get in that state of mind?&lt;p&gt;The professor that taught my &amp;quot;logic&amp;quot; class in college would say that feelings and actions come about as a result of _beliefs_. So what kinds of beliefs lead to feeling inspired&amp;#x2F;disappointed&amp;#x2F;jealous? And in contrast, what kinds of beliefs tend to lead one to curiosity?</text></comment>