The greatest ability is the ability to improve, and the most valuable asset is an open, curious mind. People often underestimate how much they can and will change over time. It is those people who take advantage of the inevitability of change by creating and building upon quality habits and practices that ultimately succeed.
It's impressive to encounter someone with extreme knowledge or skill, but it is more impressive to witness someone grow consistently over the course of many years. There are few prodigies, and many precocious talents burn out. The people who last long enough to make it to the top in any field have a sole commonality: they seek constant improvement. They're never satisfied with their current level of knowledge or skill.
These open minded, consistently growing humans understand that they'll never have all the answers. They realize the totality of human knowledge is unknowable to an individual, and that the rate of knowledge creation is outpacing their ability to learn it. But this doesn't bother them. It doesn't discourage them from becoming better each day.
Instead, those who are able to grow day over day, year over year, and decade over decade are content with bringing their best each day but never content with how good their best is.
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