Personally if there are reasons why people excel at something, contribute remarkably and still don’t like it, it’s usually because something is screwed up in these 4 areas. I like your blog very much, but I seriously suggest you give the book a read. I’ve been through the best college in my country and I find that people start hating the academic life when they slog through sleepless nights and yet don’t get good grades when they “think” they have worked hard (and this is so WRONG) — physical and mental energy is gone and failures frustrate.

A great deal of support comes from family and friends in helping people out in their success. I know a genius violinist who had a career of over 60 years who set the bar in his system of music — and at the back of it he had the full support of his parents in his formative years and later his wife who literally was his manager both in business and at home.

Besides one thing, have you explored how successful people react when they are faced when the tide turns against them and things fail? Again there you can see fascinating ways in which people react to them.

[...] via Study Hacks » Blog Archive » Does Living a Remarkable Life Require Courage or Effort?. [...]

[...] Lieberman represents my dream of an academic career done right. He swings for the fences with wildly interesting projects which earn him recognition, but more importantly also earn him freedom. At this early point in his career, he can work on what he wants and where he wants. He’s constructed a life centered on intellectual novelty, and it’s remarkable. [...]

[...] This perspective also helps us cope with procrastination beyond graduation. Why do we delay on ambitious projects that could change our life for the better? The common explanation from the blogosphere is because we’re afraid of failure and lack courage. [...]

Thanks for the great post. I particularly like the insight about as Steve Martin says, “being so good at something people can’t ignore you.”

I have to disagree strongly however with your definition of a remarkable life.

“(1) you do something meaningful that you enjoy; (2) you have a flexible schedule that you control; and (3) you earn recognition and good (enough) compensation.”

The above are all elements of a remarkable life for sure. However the aspect of giving back, giving joy and happiness to others, giving something back to your society, building tools and services that others use to improve thier lives (like your blog) is entirely missed.

I only mention it because often self improvement techniques are described as tools to improve only the individual using them. This is the pit fall of self-improvement. Indeed, we need to aspire to make ourselves better in order to help others.

Ironically, once others benefit from our efforts it will make us feel better than any personal improvement we made in our own lives.

[...] job opportunities (even though we bend over backwards to convince ourselves this is not true), those who stand out in their entry level jobs then get the most interesting promotions, and so [...]

[...] While I am a big fan of Alfie Kohn’s work on intrinsic motivation, especially for those who believe that extrinsic rewards are the only way to learn, I agree with Cal Newport that students (and others) can benefit from a more nuanced and complex view of how to want to do what we, well, want to do: “It would be great, of course, if students could find intrinsic motivation for all academic work, but this is a pipe dream. As you move through high school and into college, work becomes demanding. Few can summon an intrinsic interest in reviewing 200 pages of AP history notes or memorizing organic chemistry equations: these are hard tasks, which require the unpleasant mental strain of hard focus. In other words, a large percentage of student work will remain extrinsically motivated — we do it to for the grade and the interesting options a good GPA attracts, or to build the expertise needed for a remarkable life.“ [...]

[...] It would be great, of course, if students could find intrinsic motivation for all academic work, but this is a pipe dream. As you move through high school and into college, work becomes demanding. Few can summon an intrinsic interest in reviewing 200 pages of AP history notes or memorizing organic chemistry equations: these are hard tasks, which require the unpleasant mental strain of hard focus. In other words, a large percentage of student work will remain extrinsically motivated — we do it to for the grade and the interesting options a good GPA attracts, or to build the expertise needed for a remarkable life. [...]

[...] if you’ve been reading Study Hacks this past year you know that my instincts lead me toward the importance of becoming very good at something rare and valuable and then cashing in the career capital this generates for things you [...]