Striving Towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

I have learned that the most important math skill has nothing to do with calculus or algebra—it’s figuring out what your choices today are actually going to cost you down the road.

Like, think about it:

Scrolling through social media instead of reading that book? Feels harmless in the moment, but a year later you’ve consumed thousands of bite-sized posts and finished zero books. Meanwhile, someone else read 20 books and now they’re having deeper conversations, making better decisions, and just… growing.

Choosing Netflix over learning a new skill every night? Fast forward a few years and you’re wondering why you feel stagnant.

Avoiding that tough conversation with a friend or partner? That small issue becomes a massive problem, and now the relationship is hanging by a thread.

Or on the flip side: Investing 30 minutes a day reading doesn’t seem like much, but in a year that’s like 180 hours of knowledge you didn’t have before. Saving $10 a day feels tiny until you realize that’s $3,650 a year. Working out consistently might suck now, but future you is going to be so grateful.

Every decision is basically a down payment on your future self. The question is: are you paying into the life you want, or the life you’ll regret?