Your Superpower Is Right Next to Your Deepest Wound
How our strengths and our flaws are often closely related.
Prologue
Okay, I get it - you’re reading a newsletter entitled Cryptocurrently - and this article has very little to do with cryptocurrency. Neither did the last one I sent out. Sorry!
As a relative newcomer to the world of crypto I’ve observed the ‘crypto-winter’ unfolding in recent weeks and the general advice of those more experienced and knowledgeable than me is simply to watch and wait - “this too, shall pass”.
With that in mind, I’m choosing to pontificate with a few of my past essays that I think may be enjoyed by you, my readers.
If these are a turn-off for you then by all means delete and get on with your day, but please don’t unsubscribe! Crypto content will return at some point in the not-too-distant future - I promise.
For now, here’s an essay on why the things that make us strong, unique and give us advantages in life are often derived from our past failures and from wounds we’ve incurred along the path of life. Sound interesting?
Good.
Usain Bolt is the world’s fastest human being
You knew that already of course.
Did you also know that he has an uneven stride due to a half-inch difference in the lengths of his legs as a result of the condition scoliosis? No — nor did I.
When we picture a world champion, a record holder or anyone who has reached the top of their field, most visualize a perfectly evolved and finely tuned specimen.
An individual who started out with the perfect raw materials and a physiology that made them a natural candidate for success. A human who’s been trained and tuned under watchful, expert guidance until they were in perfect shape to conquer the world.
Not necessarily so - or not so it would seem in the case of Usain Bolt at least.
A study carried out at Southern Methodist University by experts in the biomechanics of sprinting analysed Bolt’s stride. They found that the intricacies in his physique meant that his stride had evolved to compensate.
An article in the New York Times shared the key findings:
“His right leg appears to strike the track with about 13 percent more peak force than his left leg. And with each stride, his left leg remains on the ground about 14 percent longer than his right leg.”
In a 100 metre sprint that lasts less than 10 seconds, such numbers matter.
Bolt’s technique flies in the face of conventional wisdom over what makes a good sprinter. And yet the same article concluded that if his coaches had modified his stride to make it more conventional then he wouldn’t likely have achieved the dominance that he has.
Put another way, being forced to adapt to adversity was the stimulus for him achieving greatness.
In the words of Tim Ferriss taken from a recent podcast episode:
“Hyper-function and dysfunction are often right next to each other... another way to think about that… your superpower is very often right next to your biggest wound.”
We would all prefer to have every advantage and opportunity in life. Instead most of us have to make the best of what we’ve been given.
It’s often not just about coping with scarce resources or a lack of support. Many begin on the back foot, having to overcome emotional, physical or mental pain in order to succeed.
The premise suggested by Tim Ferriss and exemplified in the career of Usain Bolt is that wounds and superpowers are often intrinsically linked and the boundary between them is often blurred.
“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can”
I referred to this quote in another recent article. Arthur Ashe - the former champion tennis player - puts it succinctly.
It’s futile to hope for a more favourable starting position or for conditions more conducive to success than what we have right now. While the pain that we carry around within us may seem like a hindrance to our goals, we can’t change that it’s there — but we can choose to use it as fuel to our fire.
Whether the wound exists in our mind, body or soul we can let it hamper our progress or channel it so that it serves us instead of holding us back.
Consider another example:
There has long been acknowledged a correlation between successful comedians who also suffer from depression or bipolar disorder. An article by the BBC analysed the reasons for this, citing many examples including comedy giant Robin Williams who tragically took his own life in 2014.
The article speculates that for many such comedians their bleak and dark times serve a useful purpose. They are the basis for comic material and a useful stimulus for giving performances, which themselves provide relief to the comedian from the dark times of despair.
It’s yet another example where the superpower of those at the top of their game (in this case entertaining others through humour) exists in close emotional proximity to the wounds of their depression.
From Wounds Come Superpowers
That wounds and strengths could exist so closely to each other is a compelling idea. It seems intuitive that our weaknesses correlate closely with emotional or even physical wounds from our past. It’s also logical to direct our energies towards healing and overcoming past hurts, gaining strength and power such that they don’t hold us back.
Childhood pain
In childhood we may have felt a pressure to please those around us — the authority figures such as teachers at school or coaches in sports. Maybe our parents held exacting standards and expectations for our behaviour or our school work that were challenging to meet? It’s conceivable that lasting wounds could exist depending on how we coped in the face of these pressures.
It perhaps also explains trends seen in the attitude of children who’ve grown up in an era where around half of marriages end in divorce. It would be expected that children of divorced parents could be left with emotional wounds as a result of the dissolution of their family unit. It would further be expected that this impacts upon their own desire to get married.
As a divorced father I’m heartened that a study reported in Time magazine determined that millenials who marry in both the USA and the UK are statistically more likely to make it through the first 10 years of marriage than are the preceding generation. Could it be that the collective pain felt by a generation so used to the dismantling of families through divorce has gained the determination to form stronger, more resilient partnerships as a result of the imperfect example of their predecessors?
Wounds in adulthood
Wounds are incurred in adulthood too, of course.
The career opportunity that we passed up since we couldn’t tolerate the risk.
The relationship dominated by narcissism, abuse or jealousy that we couldn't compel ourselves to leave.
The accident that resulted in long term trauma and anxiety issues that we’re convinced will determine the path of the rest of our lives.
The wounds incurred through living often last for life. The extent of their influence is determined by whether we seek to grow and strengthen as a result of them, or whether we submit and are beaten.
The Proximity of Superpowers and Painful Wounds
The conceptual line between our superpowers and our painful wounds is extremely fine. It’s difficult to identify and challenging to maintain and protect.
Consider some examples to illustrate this, drawn from my own life. Do any resonate for you?:
Attention to detail
Your meticulousness and attention to detail is a superpower. The work you produce is considered high quality, well researched and thoughtfully presented.
Your desire to strive for perfection is a weakness. You’re unable to publish your work without procrastination, endless checking and garnering of others’ opinions. You know that perfection is a trap and an illusion. Yet you search for it relentlessly and hold yourself to its impossible standards. Your perfectionism is your Achilles heel.
Motivation
Your drive and determination is legendary. When you commit to something, others take you seriously and expect you to succeed. The extent of your efforts puts others to shame. It’s your superpower.
You regularly push yourself to the brink of burnout. Your off-switch is hidden from view and rarely used. You frequently get injured through not recovering adequately and then push onwards anyway, making things worse. It’s your greatest weakness and a frequent source of physical pain and frustration.
Empathy
You pride yourself on your affability and the consideration you extend to others. You put your own needs behind everybody elses. Your joy and satisfaction comes from pleasing others — their happiness is your happiness. Your empathy is your superpower.
By putting others ahead of yourself, you neglect your own needs. Your people-pleasing nature is overlooked by many and taken for granted by many more. When you remember to prioritise your own needs, you feel selfish. Those who are accustomed to your generosity now resent you for seeming to withdraw it. Your inability to maintain balance is your weakness and causes you pain.
Personal standards
You hold yourself to the highest possible standards and work towards the most stretching and taxing goals you can conceive. You accept and expect nothing but the best from yourself and believe that greatness comes from going all-in with everything you do. It’s your superpower.
The standards and expectations you hold for yourself are unrealistic and excessively stretching. In setting such testing objectives and holding yourself rigorously to their achievement, you set yourself up to fail. This failure becomes justification to berate yourself and feel badly even when you gave it your all. Your unrealistic expectations are your weakness and they cause further pain.
As I reflect on the many ways I’ve sought to nurture superpowers from within me, I see how these could have arisen originally from inner wounds. The balance between one and the other is fine, and incredibly difficult to maintain.
Final Thought
Usain Bolt elevated himself to be the greatest sprinter who has ever existed, in spite of physiological challenges. By adapting to accommodate the intricacies of his body he developed a technique that is sub-optimal by traditional standards but exceedingly effective in practice. His superpower is intrinsically linked to his frailties and inadequacies (if they can be referred to as such)
Often our most prized and remarkable attributes exist right next to our greatest weaknesses. They emerge when we are able to effectively tackle the physical, emotional and spiritual wounds that have been bestowed upon us by life and turn them to our advantage.
To leverage these superpowers in our lives demands balance and a measured approach. It’s imperative that we don’t deepen the wound or create new wounds in the process.
I hope you enjoyed that. If you’re thinking “yeah, okay, but I still want crypto content” then I suggest you try this one for size. It’s true now as much as ever. Bitcoin has seen bloodbaths like it’s been experiencing recently, at many points in the past. But there’s plenty to suggest that the overall upward trend will continue. Put another way - this is a really smart time to buy Bitcoin.
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I've long believed that you have to walk through the darkness to find, and appreciate, the light. So I'm fascinated by this essay. Thanks Toby!