Progress is a wiggly animal.
We want to make big progress, a lot of progress, fast progress.
We want to make progress on a variety of different goals: losing weight, making more money, creating things that make us proud.
Yet, sometimes desire and ambition actually thwart progress.
Because we desire too many things, and we get painfully distracted.
You may set a goal to save more money each month, but a competing desire to spend that extra savings on something that benefits you NOW pulls at your attention and distracts you from your goal.
The same principle applies to losing weight/ food .
Or working steadily on your craft vs. getting distracted by stupid Youtube videos.
Don’t get me wrong: I am the hedonist of all hedonists.
I love food, consumption, pleasure.
And I don’t join forces with all those writer-bros touting stoicism nowadays.
But if I’m going to make progress today, I can’t be impatient.
And I can’t let every impulse put me on a bullet train to Pleasure Island.
Not if I want to lay my head down to sleep tonight and let out a deep, peaceful sigh of thankfulness because today I made progress.
I didn’t lose sight of my goals.
I focused on one goal at a time.
I didn’t get impatient and abandon my work, even when it got hard.
I had grace on myself for not getting as far as I wanted.
I stayed proud of myself for just putting one foot in front of the other.
That is my progress, my friend!
And a day worth living.
We’ve all gotten lazy, bored, tired, and distracted.
And that’s ok.
Yesterday is gone, just be here now, and make a little progress.
Paul Denni
P.S. If you’d like to make progress toward creating peace of mind over your future through your estate plan, just fill out the contact form below.