We all face challenges. I’m not talking about having to make a touch decision or anything like that – I’m talking about challenging tasks. Things like changing a diaper for the first few days of having a new baby, or learning how to change the motor oil in your car by yourself. Things that have clear, well-defined goals that we know theoretically how to achieve, but simply lack the know-how.
I’m not sure why, but I have a hell of a time building IKEA furniture – anything that comes with more than a handful of parts and I’ll read the directions 2-3 dozen times over the course of the project. And it’s not that I’m especially dim or have a hard time following simple instructions – quite the opposite actually. And because I like to think that I’m a fairly intelligent guy, there’s one little mantra that constantly rings in my head when I’m stabbing myself in the eye with a Swedish allen wrench:
Somebody dumber than you has figured this out.
This isn’t meant as some sort of weird ego-stroke or anything – it’s a fact. For the most part, any activity or task that I engage in (and have subsequent trouble with) has been successfully completed by somebody dumber than I.
Think about it – unless you’re in charge of developing artificial heart valves or making the next Intel processor the size of a taste bud – most of what you’re doing has been done by somebody before you. And the chances are good that, among the people who have successfully completed your current task, at least one of them was dumber than you are.
I realize it’s a somewhat screwed-up way to motivate yourself, but it can be surprisingly effective – provided you don’t spend too much time dwelling on the obvious dysfunctionality of the whole notion. 
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Written by Brett Kelly
Hacking Life, Practical