Three Perspectives On Making Progress
I’m a big believer in the idea that progress leads to fulfillment. To me, a fulfilled life is one that is made up of personal accomplishments and healthy relationships. Progress is required to achieve both of these things because we all have to work toward building ourselves and our relationships. It’s in that self-construction and the influence over our immediate environment where progress plays a crucial role and leads to fulfilment.
And there are three key figures that have helped shaped my view on progress.
Tim Ferriss
In many ways, the idea of progress was first introduced to my psyche by Tim Ferriss. Of course, I had heard of the term and had plenty of practice making progress in various areas of my life as I matured from a kid to a teenager and then entered adult life. But, I spent the vast majority of that time hopping from one task to the next. One test to the next, hoping that I would score better marks than my previous one. Or when I got into exercising, it was simply adding weights to the bar or dumbbell.
That version of progress was mindless action. It was me doing things because either that’s what everyone was doing or that’s how things were done. Then, I was introduced to the concept of setting work goals, personal goals, and health goals by Tim Ferriss.
It has been a while since then so I can’t quite remember what the context of the situation was but I believe Tim Ferriss was speaking on how to avoid the lows of life when you fail to meet a specific goal. His solution was to have goals set out in different areas of your life so that even if you aren’t making progress in one area, for example, your work, you can still make progress in your health or personal life.
That way, there is always positive momentum building in your life that you can then use to pull yourself up in areas that are lagging or stagnant. Plus, once you figure out how to make progress in one area of your life, you can apply the lessons to other areas and continue to move forward.
David Goggins
David Goggins is another individual who brought his own Goggins-like twist to the idea of progress. Many people view progress to be incremental. Step by step. One stone at a time. And that version of progress is true, and that’s something Goggins also abides by but one thing I took from him was setting audacious goals when it comes to making progress in life.
An example of this would be signing up for a 240-mile race as you rehab from essentially tearing your entire knee. That’s Goggins’ idea of an audacious goal and of course, I won’t recommend that to everyone.
But the idea behind that type of progress is valuable. For Goggins, running 240 miles after knee surgery wasn’t the point. Rather, if he was able to work his way up to where he can stand at the start of the race, that means his rehab went well, he did all the extra work to make sure his new tendons were healthy and strong, he put in the miles on his legs to make sure they had the proper endurance and he worked on his new running form post-surgery.
It’s all of those small progressions which are the key. Not the audacious goal. However, the audacious goal puts a deadline somewhere in the near future and in order for you to make that deadline, you have to push yourself harder than before and make progress in various aspects of your life.
By casting a big goal down the road, the path toward that goal can open up which can then allow you to make incremental progress toward that audacious goal.
Zack Telander
Zack Telander is a weightlifting coach who has a ton of good material for technique and making progress in the gym. One idea that stuck with me recently was not harping on the weight itself. My idea of making progress in the gym has usually been how much weight I can add week to week or if I can add more reps or sets from one week to another. This type of thinking is referred to as progressive overload. Progressive overload has merit and is one of many exercise techniques to make progress.
However, from Zack Telander, I got the idea of proficiency. Progress isn’t just about how much weight you can put on the bar but also how proficient you are at moving that weight. So, for example, if 135 pounds feels difficult but you are able to perform your designated set and rep scheme with that weight, instead of moving up in weight next week, stay at 135 pounds and try to make that weight move more smoothly or efficiently or with more speed.
Increasing your skill at a particular weight for 2 or 3 weeks is a form of progress that I’m working on currently. In some ways, it feels as if you’re mastering the weight before moving up and challenging yourself.
So, it’s clear that there are many ways to make progress. You can either set a wider net of goals throughout your life to fortify yourself against negative momentum. Or, you can cast an audacious goal and then hit each of the incremental stepping stones toward that goal. Or you can pick something and stick with it until you have earned a sense of mastery and proficiency over it before finding another challenge. And of course, you can combine all three of these things to get a sense of fulfilment.
Originally published at http://learnedliving.org on June 9, 2023.