A Framework for Becoming Better
[1/5] Part one of a five part series detailing Prompt’s framework for becoming better.
Every Sunday, Prompted delivers insights and prompts designed to help readers become a bit better each day.
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It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.
Confucius
Writing a new edition of Prompted each week has given me a lot of time to consider what it means to become “better”.
There are many different lenses to view improvement and I’ve examined lots of them over the years I’ve been writing, but a few concepts come up repeatedly.
These concepts have become the framework that I use to think about becoming a bit better each day.
To make meaningful progress and do something truly remarkable takes more than an offhanded desire to improve and ad hoc efforts when we’re in the right mood.
To make meaningful progress and do something truly remarkable requires a focused and structured approach to our lives and what is important to us.
There are many different frameworks to do so and over the next few weeks, I’m going to share the framework that has emerged from all of the writing and learnings in this newsletter.
In the coming weeks, each newsletter will dive into one idea from the framework.
My goal is the 5-week series will provide a clear and actionable approach to becoming a bit better each day.
Becoming a Bit Better Each Day
Prompted’s goal is to help readers become a bit better each day.
I believe that the urge to improve is deeply programmed into our psyche through our evolution. For most of our existence to stagnate or decline meant to die. Therefore, only those with the drive to constantly improve survived.
The ones who weren’t constantly searching for new shelter or food sources didn’t make it very long and the ones who did passed along their propensity to better their circumstances as our fundamental drive to improve.
If we’re not growing, developing, or improving we get bored, antsy, and anxious. We need a purpose and outlets to improve our circumstances.
Previously this drive to get better was channeled into fulfilling our basic needs, but for most of us, these are already taken care of, so we need to channel our efforts to improve into other areas of our lives to feel sane.
Becoming better is a human need the same way food and social interactions are and figuring out how to do it should be something we take seriously.
Little by little, a little becomes a lot
Sustainability is one of the most important ingredients for improving.
Huge gains are easily washed away by time, so consistency is more important than the magnitude of improvement. An average diet adhered to every day for a year will always get better results than a perfect diet adhered to for a month.
This is why Prompted is focused on becoming a bit better each day.
Small consistent improvements over time compound to meaningful progress in the long term.
Thinking and writing about this approach to improvement has led me to this thesis for channeling our innate drive to improve into the most important areas of our lives.
We can become a bit better each day by making meaningful progress towards worthwhile pursuits with balanced and intentional daily action.
This thesis has been refined from ideas that have come up over and over again in many editions of Prompted and make up the framework for improvement we’ll be exploring in the coming weeks.
Prompts
In what ways do you feel the urge to improve?
How would you rate your consistency when it comes to the things that matter most?
Do you have a structured approach focused on improving in the most important areas of your life?
Deep Dive
The handbook to building new habits and getting better.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin
This sounds like a helpful series, looking forward to the next installments!