Mastery: The Best Advice I Ever Received

Issue No. 17 | April 24th, 2023 | Read Time: 3 Minutes

Happy Monday Everyone!

I think it's safe to say that no one really ends up doing what they originally planned on. You hear it all the time and even experienced it for yourself.

At a young age and even into our teenage years we grow up wanting to be a firefighter, an astronaut, a doctor, or even the President. But over time our plans change and we find ourselves living a life no where near aligned with where we thought we'd be. 

And it's not because we necessarily changed our minds, but for a lot of us life just gets in the way and sends us down an entirely different path.

We begin to feel that life is against us and is just sending us down a road of mediocrity, when in all actuality it's sending us down the path we were destined for all along. 

I was fifteen years old and I was only one semester into my first year of High school. As a kid just getting out of Middle School you tend to think you're invincible, and it was this mentality that led to my poor performance in my Freshman year. 

My grades quickly dropped to nothing but D's and F's and honestly I didn't really care. The only thing I did care about was my involvement in the Air Force JROTC Program. 

I grew up with the sole desire to become a pilot in the Air Force and I never really seemed to imagine myself doing anything else. But once word got out about my horrid grades I was eventually suspended from the Corps until I could bring them back up.

This was of course devastating blow because that was the only thing that really brought me any sort of belonging. But right before my suspension my instructor sat me down and told me one thing that changed my life.

"The elevator to success is out of order, you'll have to take the stairs, one step at a time."

It was at that moment I knew that success doesn't come easy. That there is no such thing as overnight success and if you're wanting to catch a glimpse of it. . . well, there's the stairs. 

But the good thing about taking the stairs is that you know you'll hit the top eventually. As long as you make the decision to never back down, you'll be bound to succeed.

And that's what I did. Even to my surprise it took me only a couple weeks to bring up all my grades to C's or higher. I took every extra credit assignment I could, studied as long as it took, and went to tutoring because this time I was actually fighting for something.

I was then able to rejoin the Corps and went on to finish the remaining three and a half years of High School as an A, B student.

And you might be surprised to hear that I never did join the Military. And why is that? Well that's a story I'll bore you with another day. 

Just like that kid who grew up wanting to be a Marine Biologist but is now studying Web Design, life just sent me down another path. But remember sometimes what we originally believe is the wrong path, is actually the right one.

Regardless of where life sends you and what life throws at you, just keep taking it one day at a time. Sadly there are no shortcuts in the game of life, but that's what makes winning it so much better.

Always be looking up the staircase because one day you will see the top. One day you'll realize why life sent you up these stairs. All you have to do is take it

one step at a time

. 

Until next time,

Isaiah Taylor

Dive Deeper

What I'm Currently Reading -

I'm now reading

The Creative Act

by Rick Rubin, a book on how to expand your creative mindset and inspire you to keep working with a new sense of direction.

• If you'd like to see my notes pertaining to any of the other books I have previously read, then check out my websiteisaiahctaylor.comto view my entire library of notes and summaries.

Quote Of The Week

• "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today." — Franklin D. Roosevelt