The Sole Requirement for Change
What stands in the way becomes the way.
Kia Orana my friends,
Doing a bit of a mid-week post, to make up for my absence. In classic fashion, after declaring my new found consistency, I missed three weeks. The most I have missed since I started earlier this year. Sometimes I wonder if saying ‘there’s nothing I can do about it now’ is a mechanism for excusing myself from inaction. That’s not for today though.
Today is about progress.
Progress is a pretty slippery slope for me and most. We have a natural tendency to really overestimate the relationship between work and progress. One unit of work in, one unit of success out. After a while you realise that it actually might require ten in for every one out. Sometimes it’s fifty, sometimes it’s a hundred. Sometimes it requires so much effort that it feels like the dial hasn’t even made a single tick, despite your strong will and determination to make it do so.
This lack of tangible and measurable progress makes it really difficult to sustainably muster up the courage to continue on for long periods of time. Sometimes the relationship is so disproportional it feels like there was really no point in the first place. This can be a really tricky position for people who are desperate for things to change. We start to miscalculate the required work for the desired outcome because the reality is either too emotional or too disappointing to face.
Growing up people always used to say that I looked so much like my uncles. Whenever I saw old photos of them, the only real definite similarities I noticed is that they were both really skinny, and both really small. Even throughout high school I never really grew into a first XV esq build like my dad at the same age, and I resigned myself to the idea that this was who I was.
After 3 solid years of hard graft, I’ve grown a lot (though I’m still skinny). It’s taught me an important lesson about how real change is made. It really requires a bit of faith, dealing with the discomfort and adversity required to create the outcomes that you really want. Whether it is to become stronger, wiser, happier or fulfilled, change doesn’t really happen without challenge. It requires everything and more from you to overcome the battles your body, mind and soul face, and a lack of determination could see you losing those battles.
Whether you want to look fitter, you’re fighting a mental battle, you want to take on further studies, improve at your job, learn new skills or fulfil your dreams, getting from where you are now to where you want to go starts with just one challenging unit after another. Coming from someone who wants the best for you, anything that is ever meaningful is simply born out of doing hard things for a long enough time. It’s therefore your responsibility to embrace the suck, really challenge your capability and discover where your limitations are.
The impediment of action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way - Marcus Aurelius
Just Something To Consider.
