The Art of Blooming Late

Summarising below the article The Art of Blooming Late as some might be running out of free articles, right @rosiesherry?

Even Mozart struggled in his teens and early twenties

He was already a prolific composer, but had to work full time as organist and concertmaster to make ends meet.

His FT job was taking most of his time and creativity away. So, after some time, he quit his job! The rest is history.

Do you relate to Mozart's life in this way?

You've been working hard, excelled at school, doing everything as it should be, earning a good salary but feels like you're only following conventions and being like everyone else?

"In Aristotle’s Way, the classicist Edith Hall describes the ancient philosopher’s belief that becoming conscious of our skills, talents, and aptitudes (dynamis) and then using our resources to make the most of them (energeia) is the foundation of living a good life. If you’re not working toward reaching your unique potential—as Mozart did—it’s normal to feel dissatisfied. If that’s the case, says Aristotle, it’s your duty to make things right. The philosopher John Kaag, author of Hiking with Nietzsche, agrees. “The self does not lie passively in wait for us to discover it,” he writes. “Selfhood is made in the active, ongoing process, in the German verb werden, ‘to become.’”

What's holding you back?

Rich Karlgaard, Late Bloomers author, suggests that our culture of early achievement moves us away of following our passions.
We're in general, encouraged to have a "stable", lucrative career. So, we choose professional excellence over personal fulfillment.

The authors of Dark Horse, Todd Rose and Ogi Ogas of Harvard’s School of Education, noticed the negative effects of early specialization in a study of people who came out of nowhere to achieve great success. “Despite feeling bored or frustrated, underutilized or overwhelmed,” the two write, “most dark horses reluctantly plodded along for years before finally coming to the realization that they were not living a fulfilling life.” Then, after a period of restless, quiet ambition, these seemingly average people—administrative assistants, engineers, IT managers—were able to transform their “cravings, predilections, and fascinations” into successful careers as master sommeliers, lifestyle entrepreneurs, and celebrated craftsmen.

Want to make this "revolution in your life"?

Rose and Ogas suggest to create micro-actions towards an specific activity that truly inspires you.

For example, when Korinne Belock left her job as a political aide to form Urban Simplicity, a firm that declutters and redesigns homes and offices, her micromotive was “organizing physical space.”

It's never too late

Aristotle for instance, mastered writing and philosophy when he was nearly 50. Age brings wisdom, resilience, humility, self-knowledge, creativity.

Remember, your journey might take years to reach the destination. But small daily changes can have compound effect. Enjoy your journey.

If you ever get stuck, think of Joanne, a talented and creative woman who bounced from job to job throughout her twenties, working as a researcher, secretary, and English-as-a-second-language teacher. Optionless and clinically depressed, she felt like a total failure. But she took that feeling of despair and used it to her advantage. Since she hadn’t succeeded in following a standard path, she felt liberated to do what she’d always wanted to do: write fantasy novels for children. As she would later recount, “I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was.”
You’ve probably heard of her. Her pen name is J.K. Rowling.

Conclusion: Am I trying to justify that I'm getting old? 😂