The principles we live by are incredibly important, they say everything about us and what we stand for. So, following the example of one of my favorite bloggers and thought leaders, Shane Parrish, I wrote down some principles to guide what this blog is all about. Hopefully that way if you’re just coming here for the first time you’ll know what to expect and where I’m trying to go.
Progress over Perfection
The goal of these projects and the whole project that is this blog is to have fun. There are a billion plus blogs, youtubers and social media personalities out there right now, all trying desperately to have it all together. That’s not me. I know this site isn’t perfect. I know I’m not perfect. In fact, I think I’m perfectly average. But, I’m trying to get better, feel better and hopefully show what it looks like to start literally at square 1 and continually improve just by putting in a little bit of effort every day. And maybe one day this blog will be amazing and I’ll have re-coded it all myself.
Plans not Willpower
Willpower will not keep you from eating that slice of chocolate cake, or keep you going to the gym every day or get out of a state of hopelessness and depression. Only having an actual plan and a goal and a reason behind what you’re doing will. That’s why every project is planned out weekly and that’s the purpose behind having these projects in the first place, to have a goal to be working toward and not just a will or a dream to get fit or start your own blog or website.
Tinkering
Malcom Gladwell famously wrote in his book Outliers that it takes around 10,000 to get exceptionally good at anything. While my goal here is eventually to get to expert level at some things, I simply want to get a bit better at everything else. And I think this can be done in a lot less than 10,000 hours if the effort put in is targeted and focused on tinkering. This means not just doing but trying to do better every day. The first day, it might take three hours to do something extremely simple, but by the end of the month by making slight improvements every day it may take only one hour to do something much more challenging. That is the goal.
Purposeful Living
When asked how your day or weekend was do you have an actual answer? Yeah, me neither. For the longest time when asked these questions I genuinely couldn’t answer because each day just seemed to blend into the next in seamless monotony. Each day and month and year seems to go by with nothing of value really getting done. That’s why I want to start putting my energy and time into things I genuinely care about every day. So when I look back at my college years and my life I’ll have something to show for it.
Completion
Having a plan and a purpose is important but goals don’t become reality until they’re completed. That means I am telling myself and making the promise to you that I am not going to let the day end or go to sleep until I have worked on my progress project. It’s as simple as that.
Now that you know what Progress Making is all about, I hope you’ll start a project too and start making progress!