What Does it Take to Get Better?

We all want to get better, don't we? Isn't that the point of life? If we do want to get better, what is stopping us? Our goals may be too ambitious. Sure, ambition is good; that's what the internet tells us. But do we ever stop to ask what the point in having an ambitious goal is?

It doesn't take a lot to get better; it actually takes very little. Regardless of what you are trying to get better at- learning to code, sharpening presentation skills, strengthening your body, improving at a sport- all you have to do is one thing that you weren't doing before. It's not about being able to do something that another person is doing. It's not about reaching an arbitrary level of skill. It's about doing something new that you haven't done before.

If you've never read a book in your adult life but want to build a reading habit, all you have to do is read one page a day. It doesn't seem like much and it sounds like dumb advice you've heard before, but that doesn't make it un-true. You're doing more. You were reading zero, now you're at non-zero. That is progression and as long as you keep progressing, you will get better. You almost don't even have to try; you simply need to do one thing that moves you towards the person you want to be.

I've decided to publish one blog post a day (indefinitely). This is day four. I'm doing it because I want to get better. I want to get better at writing. I want to get better at organizing my thoughts and ideas into posts that can be valuable to others. I want to get better at practicing discipline. I went from zero posts to four posts. I don't know if they are good, if they make sense, or if they provide value. But I know that I'm better.

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