The first time I did pistol shooting, in Mussoorie’s IAS training academy, our pistols all malfunctioned – or so it seemed. Five of us, barely 15 m from the targets, fired a volley of shots, and yet, the targets were practically untouched.
Scratching my head, I asked the instructor, ‘How is this possible? Are the pistols working properly?’ So to demonstrate, he shot a few rounds, and almost all hit the target.
It turns out that firing a 9 mm Browning pistol, or even a revolver, is really hard.
But then, how does Clint Eastwood effortlessly finish off bad guys in a burst, without even aiming? Turns out, most glamour is just made up. Real-life, even in glamorous-looking jobs, is often very non-exciting.
Warren Buffett may be a rock-star investor, but he spends most of his time just reading thick reports. Working as an IAS or IPS is 95% routine work — the image cultivated on social media is quite misleading.
But just because something looks boring doesn’t mean it can’t be deeply satisfying — we can find great meaning and joy if these things resonate with us.
Let’s get over the craving for ‘Clint Eastwood action’. Instead, go deep into things you care about and acquire mastery.
Then, one day, someone might say, ‘What an exciting life you have!’
– Rajan