Getting better one day at a time
It’s been nearly four months since I’ve kept to a consistent posting schedule. And sadly I can’t say it’s not for a lack of trying, because that’s exactly what it’s been—a lack of trying. At first, being back in my last semester of university was …
I really love music and it’s something I always wanted to be good at but never put the time and effort into. So, this month I am going to try to teach myself the basics of piano. It’s funny because my cousin majored in music …
is to slowly chip away at it.
Expect failure but keep going anyway. Like with exercise, to get good at anything, you have to put in your reps. You have to push until you think you will give up and then give that extra 5%, because that is where the true growth comes. By tearing those muscle fibers, they are built up and become stronger.
You can apply this concept to any goal. Break it down into small chunks and commit to completing those mini-milestones. Exert yourself slightly beyond your current ability each time.
If you do this, there is simply no limit to how far you can go and what you can accomplish.
I’m so pumped that it’s already been a month and I’ve managed to complete my first goal. I think what’s especially fun about this project is that when you set yourself a specific time frame, it allows you to reflect back on the process. So, …
Negative Feedback Loops Getting stuck in a negative feedback loop is real. And it’s a place that I’ve been trapped in for the past couple of months. For me it looks a little something like this: The worst part about these loops is that they …
Hey, welcome! I’m really glad you clicked whatever link you did to bring you here. Time is valuable so I appreciate you spending some of it here.
Before you get in too deep I want to make a few confessions. I don’t have it all figured out and I don’t know everything. Actually, I think I pretty much know next to nothing. Most of the ideas and inspiration I share here I got from other people who have it a lot more together than I do.
But, that’s kind of the whole point of this. Earlier this moth after tracking my mood since the start of 2019, I started to notice a pattern. I was slipping into a zombie-like state of melancholy. One day just seemed to blend into the next and everything was pointless, as you can see from all of the gray.
So, I decided to do something, anything about it. I had been thinking about creating a website or blog for a while but it just didn’t seem possible. A million other people had already done it and done it way better than I had, so what was the point?
But then I realized maybe that is the point. To produce something unpolished and in progress and show how progress can be made on it just by working a little bit at a time. This idea sparked a little light in me, a little hope. Something I hadn’t really been feeling in a while. Which is why I decided to make Progress Making.
The main idea is to take on a monthly goal and share my progress. (I first got this idea from Matt Cutts’ TedTalk which you should really watch if you haven’t already.) I also explore concepts like healthy eating, productivity, hopelessness, imperfection and not having it all together. I know that I will probably fail at some or even many of the goals that I set at first but that’s also the goal. To show that life is messy but it continues and by picking myself back up and picking up where I left off I can still accomplish things.
I’m also hoping to talk to you! If you’re a student at Georgetown or live in DC I’d love to meet up. If you’re working on a cool project that’s in progress or you want to start a project and don’t know where to begin I’d be really interested to hear about it. Just leave me a comment, connect with me on social media, or sign up to get emails from me about what I’m reading and how to stay motivated.
Thanks again for being here, I hope to hear from you soon.