Finesse

When I was a kid I couldn't serve a volleyball over the net no matter what I did. By the seventh grade, my teacher told me I had perfect form and I should keep doing what I was doing. (Thanks for the help.) At best, the ball went into the net.

However, by the seventh grade, plenty of girls could serve the ball over the net. They were so strong that there had to be an additional rule for playing volleyball: the ceiling is out of bounds. These girls could no longer do what I was doing: hit the ball as hard as possible. They had to find that fine line between getting it over the net and getting it out of bounds.

If they were really good, they could also even try to aim the ball. If they were evil, they could figure out who the worst girl on the other team was, and spike it to that girl, every single time, until the girl's arms hurt so much she didn't even want to try to hit it back. Even if you're not evil, you can still always be looking for the gap or for the one who's not paying attention, or my favorite trick, try to get the ball just past the net.

The same thing happens with eating. During puberty, the right thing for me to do was eat as much as I could. It was never as much as I wanted (except once when I got six chili dogs and an entire batch of popcorn), so no finesse was involved. Now I have to stop soon enough to not overeat, but late enough to not get hungry again right away. Figure out how to get plenty of the delicious foods that are so wonderfully available, but also get enough nutrients in. (Yes, because I am one of those people who like sugar and salty fat more than I like vegetables and meat).

Same thing with money. I used to have no money and no decisions. Now I have some money.

Sometimes this finessing seems like a pain, but really it's a good thing.