Give Up or Get Back Up? Celebrate the Progress

My "Better" chart

Little changes add up.

Do you believe that? 

Of course you do. But do you celebrate the little changes?

When we take on goals for our lives, we envision the end result like having the dream job or the 26.2 miles we will complete for the marathon.  This is a good practice and I encourage it but there are times where we can be frustrated by this vision because we are so far away from it. We look at where we are now and we look at where we want to be and the distance seems too great.

January to December is a great distance. You may be frustrated with your progress so far because you haven’t perfected whatever habit you want to take on. 

DON’T GIVE UP!

Think of the process that babies go through to start walking. They have this innate desire to walk and set about doing it but it’s a long process from desire to mastery. They have to master pulling themselves up using tables and people’s legs for balance.  They start to stand on their own and fall back down.  They take wobbly steps and fall down. But when they aren't practicing these new skills, they continue on using their current form of transportation, namely crawling.

At some point, and no one even notices when it happens, the crawling becomes less and less and the walking becomes more and more.  It’s so gradual that it is taken for granted.

Do we cheer and clap for that first step, video tape it, take pictures, tell Grandma and Grandpa about it then expect only walking from that moment on? NO! What if the baby gave up after the third fall because he wasn’t getting it? That’s just silly.

New habits take time and practice.  We don't just get good at things the first time we set out to do them. It's hard work (If it weren't then we'd all be great at whatever we wanted.) There are days you want to get up and go and you practice whatever skill you need to.  There are also times you get frustrated and tired and just want to sit down on your butt.

What about your new habits this year? Have you given up because you haven’t mastered them? Have you “cheated” or not worked out so you throw in the towel?

So what are you going to do? 

Give up or get back up?

Since I'm about More, Better, and Different than I've done in the past, I've started a chart.  I fill in a box for each day I work on my goal.  It's not about perfection. I'm not trying to fill in every single square for every single goal.  What I hope to see is a consistent pattern of getting better at working on each goal.  The top section is my Bible reading which is schedule for 6 days a week. Towards the bottom, there is a pattern of two blocks per week because I've been working on publishing a blogpost two days a week.  As the month goes on, you can see where I start adding more goals to my calendar.  The above chart is for January.  Next month, I hope to have more squares colored in and continue the progress throughout the year.

Is there a way you can mark your progress so you can see the gradual improvement over time? Can you see the “more,” “better,” or the “different than how you were doing it before?”

If life is a journey, not a destination we need to celebrate or at least acknowledge the little changes we are making along the way.

What have you been working on or want to work on this year? How are things going? Any thoughts or comments about the blog?  Feel free to write in the comments below.  

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Thanks a lot and have an awesome weekend!! Go 49ers!!!