Everything about this message is lovely. This part is especially resonant with my own journey:
"...the more important it becomes to release from attachment to acute progress. It also becomes increasingly important to find fulfillment and satisfaction in the work itself, and the community in which you do it."
I work as resilience coach with prek-12 educational communities. I was asked "How do you do this everyday and not burn out?" I heard myself say, "The work is is own reward. "
I see the "1% better every day" idea better from 30,000 ft, as they say. Steady progress in the big picture. It allows you to ignore big jumps, slight dips, the plateaus.
Well put. If we consider competence being a core part of motivation, easy to see how when our best effort stops progressing (as quickly) how that can negatively impact intrinsic motivation. But there’s lots of ways to measure success and progress other than by best efforts!
One percent better everyday is not a myth according to me. I think it is all about perspective and viewing lense of the person viewing it. One percent better everyday doesn't mean one will get better everyday in terms of performance, it is said in a wholesome scenario that you are getting better in terms of showing up and other aspects of your life by showing up for yourself and not breaking the private contract you had with yourself for showing up day in & day out irrespective of the bad days. Even though you are not running the splits you wanted to, not lifting the weights you wanted to, not being able to write the way you wanted to. It looks like throwing in the towel in the very moment when the act is not happening according to our narration in our minds & what we expect to perform. We are creating resilience in our minds which can't be measured in any kind of personal best, over the period of time when one goes through lows during the process and complete the session is a reminder in a race that yeah I got through this a lot of times and today I can persevere this very pain I am feeling. As Coach Ed Eyestone says Consistent Competence=Eventual Excellence. And where ever one is everybody has bad days when they are struggling. Sara Hall has been running for almost 3 decades, does she feel good when she takes time off from training or coming back from injury. Their body has to go through the lowest of lows, sometimes even back to back days in a week while building back up their fitness and this goes to every athlete. Even the professionals face days where they feel like giving up in their domain, Sifan Hassan keeps on saying she still doesn't understand why she signs up for marathons as it is a brutal distance to compete but here she is- she has won 3 marathon majors, one 3rd place at 2025 London and a gold at 2024 Paris Olympics. She said this after Sydney marathon that after 5KM mark she was feeling hard and in the last 5 KM she was kind of dead and even though she was going through n number of thoughts, she won it.
Everything about this message is lovely. This part is especially resonant with my own journey:
"...the more important it becomes to release from attachment to acute progress. It also becomes increasingly important to find fulfillment and satisfaction in the work itself, and the community in which you do it."
I work as resilience coach with prek-12 educational communities. I was asked "How do you do this everyday and not burn out?" I heard myself say, "The work is is own reward. "
Thanks for writing and posting here.
I see the "1% better every day" idea better from 30,000 ft, as they say. Steady progress in the big picture. It allows you to ignore big jumps, slight dips, the plateaus.
Well put. If we consider competence being a core part of motivation, easy to see how when our best effort stops progressing (as quickly) how that can negatively impact intrinsic motivation. But there’s lots of ways to measure success and progress other than by best efforts!
One percent better everyday is not a myth according to me. I think it is all about perspective and viewing lense of the person viewing it. One percent better everyday doesn't mean one will get better everyday in terms of performance, it is said in a wholesome scenario that you are getting better in terms of showing up and other aspects of your life by showing up for yourself and not breaking the private contract you had with yourself for showing up day in & day out irrespective of the bad days. Even though you are not running the splits you wanted to, not lifting the weights you wanted to, not being able to write the way you wanted to. It looks like throwing in the towel in the very moment when the act is not happening according to our narration in our minds & what we expect to perform. We are creating resilience in our minds which can't be measured in any kind of personal best, over the period of time when one goes through lows during the process and complete the session is a reminder in a race that yeah I got through this a lot of times and today I can persevere this very pain I am feeling. As Coach Ed Eyestone says Consistent Competence=Eventual Excellence. And where ever one is everybody has bad days when they are struggling. Sara Hall has been running for almost 3 decades, does she feel good when she takes time off from training or coming back from injury. Their body has to go through the lowest of lows, sometimes even back to back days in a week while building back up their fitness and this goes to every athlete. Even the professionals face days where they feel like giving up in their domain, Sifan Hassan keeps on saying she still doesn't understand why she signs up for marathons as it is a brutal distance to compete but here she is- she has won 3 marathon majors, one 3rd place at 2025 London and a gold at 2024 Paris Olympics. She said this after Sydney marathon that after 5KM mark she was feeling hard and in the last 5 KM she was kind of dead and even though she was going through n number of thoughts, she won it.
I personally love the phrase one percent better every day but as a mindset for life across domains.
The phrase can become extremely limiting when applied to one specific domain due to what you explained here.
Great piece 👊🏻