Progress

Progress In Depth

The key to improvement is the intention to grow

Realize that the quality of our intention will always determine the quality of the results we get in everything we do in life.

Thus, if one wants to improve in whatever one does, then one has to carry the intention to improve. 

For instance, if one carries no intention to improve their ability to play tennis, their skills will improve at a slower pace than if they had carried the intention to improve. Because in the former, one will simply swing the rackets as they are told by the coach and hope for the best. But in the latter, one will be more active in looking for ways to improve their swing, their timing, their footwork, adjusting their practice to learn what they need to improve instead of wasting efforts on things they don't need to do. 

So, the intention is important. If one is not bothered about improvement, then improvement will be slow compared to if one had the passion for it. 

 Sometimes, one can carry the intention to improve but that intention may lack power thus having little effect on the mind. In this case, one can simply find more reasons to improve to give their intentions greater force. That is why the deeper your purpose is, the more your life journey will be driven forward by it. 

Discovering Your Uniqueness

Developing Self-Knowing is important because everyone's born with a unique personality with their own habit patterns. So realize that everyone will learn things differently. Some can absorb abstract information easier than others whilst some can pick up intellectual things faster. Some may understand teachings better when they are presented in a creative form whilst others may find it easier to understand then when they are presented more literally. 

Thus by Knowing your strengths and weaknesses, you can use those to understand how you can learn the subjects you want in a faster way. For instance, if you want to improve your tennis skills and are the type of person who is more into physical learning rather than intellectual, then you would probably not want a coach who is always talking about techniques and strategies; rather, you would learn faster from competing in matches with others.

So, finding one's most effective way of learning can be useful.

Find ways to practice so that one can gain more passion in learning rather than ways to extinguish it. For instance, if you find improving your piano techniques through playing exam pieces boring, then find music that you find beautiful and play it so that you can improve your techniques whilst enjoying the process.

And to find what works best for one will require one to explore all possible methods—to give all methods a fair go. So, when one is learning about something, one has to have an open mind, opening themselves to all kinds of practices and teachings even though the mind may judge it to be ineffective. It's only when one actually tries a method and learns from one's experiences, one can know the effectiveness of a method. 

The Importance Of A Strong Foundation

Sometimes, one can reach plateaus in their potential to improve; the reason, most of the time, is the lack of a strong foundation.

How do we develop a strong foundation?

To have a strong foundation, we have to know our weaknesses because it is by addressing one's weaknesses that one can climb even higher. 

Realize that a tree will only be able to climb as high as the strength and weaknesses of its roots. 

That is why it will be helpful if one can develop an awareness of their weaknesses in the skill or goal they are trying to achieve, and work on those as well rather than investing all their time and effort on developing on their strengths.

For instance, if one wants to learn how to lift a weight off the ground, one may reach their limits if they simply do the same exercises again and again. Perhaps one needs to work on their lack of flexibility by doing some yoga. Perhaps one needs to work on their cardio to improve their poor blood circulation. Perhaps one needs to do more core exercises. 

So sometimes, when there is something that we want to achieve, we may have to learn about things that are unrelated to our goals because those present the weaknesses that hold us back from improving even more. 

For instance, an artist can learn how to ground their minds by learning how to structure their lives like a business manager to improve their creativity.

For instance, an extrovert can learn to temper their excessive social energy with meditation to improve their relationship with others.

A person who is meditating all the time can learn how to socialize more to balance their life and improve their mind. 

Thus, to go beyond the threshold of what we can achieve, one can work on the limitations that is holding one back from achieving more, which will be our weaknesses, the skills, the character constitutions that we lack in.

Realize that nothing grand can be built on top of a weak foundation because in such a design, there will always be a toppling point!