I've been working in the field for 7 years now, and I wish I had someone in my life, a mentor if you will, who told me that consistency is much more appreciated and valued than talent.
I have to set something straight before I go on and tell you a story about it. When I say 'Talent,' I mean the exceptional people who are born to do this, not someone who doesn't want to accept they are not the best.
I had a hemi shoulder replacement on May 19th, 2023. The days that followed were the most painful days of my life. On the first day, the physios were trying to bring some movement, and due to the post-anesthetic effect, I couldn't feel anything. As soon as the anesthetic effect started fading, the shoulder felt like a block of ice. I had only 15 degrees of movement.
Every day, I regretted getting the replacement. It used to be the worst hour of the day for me when the physio visited the house. It felt like trying to bend a block of metal and hurt like hell. After the first week, without my realization, my movement had increased by 10 degrees, and now I could lift my hands higher. It felt good, but no matter how good I felt that day, the next day it would hurt like hell again. Every other week, out of nowhere, I could see some improvements. Weeks turned into months, and I found myself training with weights. Weights helped during the lying down position exercises and made it worse during the ones where I had to stand up. I was able to lift my hands about 140 degrees standing up at the end of 2 months.
The last few degrees were the most difficult to achieve; the pain was minimal by then, but to achieve each degree of movement, I had to work many times harder. On the last day of physiotherapy, I had a normally functioning shoulder. It took about 3 months.
I had joined back at work after 2 weeks after surgery, and Baani (my daughter) was 7 months old at the time. I never thought about the pain and suffering I went through again. During one of the visits a couple of months later, my doctor told me I was the first patient of the physio who visited my house, and out of the 4 similar patients in that time frame, I was the only one with almost complete movements. My physio had earned a promotion with the help of my case.
It hit me. If I had asked my physio about the other patients and learned that they were not getting past this stage of movements, I would have also given up along the way. If I had information that they were not consistent, I would have as well taken some days off here and there. I would have somehow found a way to not work as hard as I did.
I realized my recovery experiences can be very good life lessons for everyone, including myself.
- Be consistent, set small goals, and achieve your targets regularly.
- Don't compare yourself with others; it might have a negative impact on your performance.
Now, imagine you lead a tech team. You have two engineers in your team: one is an average engineer who is consistent and keeps everything up-to-date, attends every meeting, and updates you regularly on delays and other things. The other is brilliant, but his work fluctuates based on multiple factors. Some days he'll come up with brilliant solutions, but due to a lack of planning and consistency, he'll end up delaying the project.
A lot of people, including myself, fall into the second category. According to me, I was coming up with solutions, and nothing with me was wrong, but the reality is different.
If I were leading a team with two people like this, I would always rely on the first person, as I would always have more control over the situation.
Conclusion
Everyone needs someone to look up to and someone who can mentor them. If you need such help in your career, I am available. Please leave a comment and let me know.
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