The Path to Meaningful Progress
The Path to Meaningful Progress
[4/5] The key to Meaningful Progress in Worthwhile Pursuits.
Every Sunday, Prompted delivers insights and prompts designed to help readers become a bit better each day.
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Action is the foundational key to all success.
Pablo Picasso
In our investigation of Prompted’s framework for becoming better, we’ve learned that we need to make Meaningful Progress in Worthwhile Pursuits to become a bit better each day.
This week we’re taking a closer look at what’s required to make Meaningful Progress.
Nothing worthwhile happens all at once. To make Meaningful Progress we need to commit to small and consistent Daily Actions.
This is the most difficult part of becoming better.
We all want to improve. It’s easy to sit around and decide which Worthwhile Pursuits are important and build a plan for making Meaningful Progress, but executing those plans is tremendously difficult.
Execution is what separates those who want to improve from those who do.
Do Stuff
No matter how much we want to improve or how elaborate the plan we create is, it’s all worthless without action.
Nothing embodies this better than the name of a small coffee roaster in Lake Tahoe, Drink Coffee Do Stuff. To make progress, we have to do stuff.
Executing Daily Actions is as simple as “doing stuff”, but executing consistently is anything but easy.
There are countless reasons we stop ourselves from doing what we need to. We evolved to protect ourselves from failure, conserve energy, and fit in with those around us.
When we have food, water, and shelter our evolutionary reaction is to sit tight and indulge in excess while we have the chance.
Choosing to do the opposite is hard. Choosing to do the opposite repeatedly and consistently for years is even harder, but this is what it takes to make Meaningful Progress.
No one has ever become remarkable by accident. It takes consistent Daily Action and each positive step forward is like casting a vote for the person we want to become.
Casting Votes
We know what we want and we know what we need to do to get there. The trouble arises when it comes time to execute.
We know what we should do and have a plan to do it, but faced with resistance and fear in the moment, we revert to what’s comfortable instead of what’s effective.
If we don’t execute the full scope of our plan, we should still take action (no matter how small) that will move us forward and cast one vote toward becoming better.
Any progress is better than none.
If we make this choice often enough the magnitude of progress is trivial. Over time these small Daily Actions compound.
The small insignificant actions produce small improvements, but these actions stacked on top of each other month after month and year after year, create the Meaningful Progress we’re all chasing.
We can’t steer a car if it’s not moving. To have any chance of becoming better we need to keep moving and to keep moving we need to execute Daily Actions.
Daily Actions fuels Meaningful Progress in Worthwhile Pursuits and Meaningful Progress in Worthwhile Pursuits is what it takes for us to become better.
Prompts
What Daily Action is required for you to make Meaningful Progress in your Worthwhile Pursuits?
Do you have the space in your life today to prioritize these Daily Actions?
What can you do today to cast one vote toward becoming better?
Deep Dive
How to Build a New Habit by James Clear
A step-by-step guide to building new habits from the author of Atomic Habits.
Thanks for reading! I’ll see you next Sunday.
Kevin