Give me some of that mentality elixir.

I need some of that 'Steady the Ship' tenacity.

Work is always serious, in terms of the actual work. Not in terms of the environment, that’s always very merry, full of bantz. But at the end of the day, the work, isn’t easy. Ask Kane Williamson if it’s easy winning test matches. Ask Wenger if it was easy coaching a team to go unbeaten a season. Ask any scientist who’s been in the business, if it’s easy. My last 10 days have been heating up.

I think there’s the normal career progression within my current pathway in formulation science and then there’s me putting a little more gas in it. Trying to be more of an Ethan Hunt about it. I want to really progress in my current role, and so that’s coming with more responsibilities week by week. And it can be quite taxing, it feels heavy. Ergo, bones can feel weary.

But there’s the other side where I’m trying to also develop non-traditionally. I’m trying to carve out a niche a bit, by burrowing myself more strong on the novel research side of things and cross functionally training on the pre-clinical side of things. I’m supplementing by finding more time in my free time for reading literature for my long term growth.

All of this is with the hope of paying real dividends over the next 3 months, 12 months, and 3 years. I think I’m being on the front foot in terms of intent, goals, and dreams.

So it feels a lot. It is a lot. And I think it starts with accepting it is hard. And then trying to adopt some generational mentality. Rahul Dravid, Kane Williamson those guys have generational talent. But they also have generational character and mentality. I was thinking about this the other day when I was going to work. We don’t think enough about the fact that a few years ago, Kane Williamson was not playing cricket. He was out so much with the chronic tendinitis, many people myself included didn’t know if we’d ever see him again. And he’s played some of the best cricket he’s ever played in his life, coming back from that. And that’s not an injury you ‘heal from’. He’s managing that for the rest of his life.

But on the topic of generational mentality. You watch any test cricketer worth his salt. And you’ll see those qualities. I do think they are distilled even purer in Williamson. You’ve got a moving ball, swinging, seaming. You’ve got 150ks. You’ve got plenty of bounce, heck you might get hit on the forearm. But it’s about ball by ball. It’s about one session, two session, three sessions, four sessions. Being unflappable, being focused, being calm, and focusing on doing really good work ball by ball. And the cumulative effect is a test match century.

I know I need to learn these two assays and master them, I know I got to learn these softwares, I need to brush up on my statistical analysis, I know I want to read these two papers and talk to x and y about them, I was asked to do this short presentation (okay I guess we’ll have to make that right). And on top of that, can you crank out another week’s worth of formulations.

Anything is possible with the right energy, the right approach, resilience, focus, and dedication. And that doesn’t mean firing on all cylinders. You’re never going to be perfect. Kane Williamson doesn’t score a hundred every game. Nor did Sachin Tendulkar. But they’ve made quite a lot of them.

Let’s keep moving.