Writing Wednesday 029: The Better We Get, The Better We Have To Get

We all must improve. Even the best amongst us know there is still better. It never ends. The more skill you have the more you need to have to improve from that point. Top performers and rookies both need constant growth, challenge, and betterment. A rookie will enhance their abilities faster as they enter a new league filled with seasoned pros. But, what about the seasoned pros? They are still working to get better, but the growth is no longer as rapid. This topic is beyond sports, although sports are one of the easiest metaphors. Any workplace, career, skill, ability, craft and endeavor has rookies and pros. Which one are you?

The beginner and the professional can learn and make progress from many avenues. Interactions with their peers and teammates, coached practice and drills, studying on their own time, absorbing the works of past masters, and competition. Constant improvement to the highest level is the focus of those who become the best, and their methods include all avenues mentioned. Those who fall in the average to below range take few paths to their betterment and are not driven by the learning and growth itself. The desire to be the best alone is not enough — an appreciation and enjoyment of the process are required. A top performer will learn every way possible.

A middle-ground performer wants the pain to stop as soon as it starts. When learning and getting better are “too hard” they avoid it. Over time this becomes a habit, and it gets harder and harder to find a reason to subject themselves to the gauntlet of growth. A top performer not only pushes past the initial pain but the subsequent pain. They master pain. Not right away, not completely, but they have a working relationship with pain and see the benefits to facing it. Pain is part of the process — they begin to see it unfolding. As time passes and the skill level increases, the pain subsides. Now when the top performer and the middle performer meet there is some suffering for the middle performer as the gaps in their skills are exposed. They thought they had avoided it, but they only postponed it. Hardship in a path of improvement, or hardship when lack of improvement is exposed?

Logically, if there is hardship both ways we should choose to get better, rather than proceed along a flat line graph, or slight decline. Avenues for improvement are always available for us. If we truly have mastered our necessary skill set, and through competition seldom are bested, are we finished improving? No. Our character, integrity, virtues, and values can always be ameliorated. The inner work never ends. Improvement within will always lead to improvement on the exterior too. It is less glamorous, and harder to measure, but it pays dividends. The inner work includes our soul, emotions, physical health, vitality, and psychology. All these aspects can perpetually progress.

As our age advances physical health may not be as readily pliable, but this is not to fear. Start improving your physical health now! At any age you can improve: end habits that are detrimental, and build more habits that are wholesome. Progress is still available. As our age advances our psychology can become stiffer than our bodies. Improvement within our own emotions and psychology is a life long journey.

We can always be working on ourselves. The better we get, the better we see we can still become. Momentum builds, horizons open, and perspectives grow. When our frame of reference shifts and better becomes normal, we need to seek out the next level. Re-framing where we are, to where there still is to ascend to. The mountain that looms past the summit we are presently on. Yes, we may even have to descend at some points, either by choice or by circumstance, to reach the new point of ascension.

We are all growing closer to death with each breath. Why not see how much better we can become before our time is up? Why stop growing and settle for where we are? You are not done. Neither am I. None of us are. We can be better people in so many ways. Physically, emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, philosophically, and morally. It is not the pursuit of perfection. It is not becoming flawless. It is just working towards our full potential. Whatever we know that to be in our hearts. But, it never happens. There is always space for advancement in some area. Perfection and full potential are not destinations they are practices and performances.

There is momentary perfection throughout life, but it is rarely sustained. I have witnessed perfection. An ephemeral taste of the ultimate potential. Once seen, perfection gives a standard that is then new reference point. The better you see, the better you can see. Like opening our eyes to a new spectrum of colours. Observing something so good it sparks something within, a deep desire to see what we are made of. How much better can we be at whatever we are doing?

Mastery is the ultimate motivation. A craft practiced with intention, absorbed within the physical body, and expressed as art. Tenacity translated into tangible triumph. Continual honing and refining. Time is progressing, will we not join it?

In a tumultuous world, the constant is our own ability to improve ourselves. Self-improvement can help improve those around us also. The better we get the better we have to get, for others. The more we develop, the more we can develop others. The more we become the more we can contribute. The more we contribute the better the world. The better the world gets, the better it has to get. The more we improve our society, economy, and environment the more it can be improved. Positive progress, first in ourselves, then helping others to progress, then we all progress. I may never reach my full potential, but I will always work towards that noble aim. I know I can get better. We all can.