This Is The Holy Grail Of Growth — There Is No Better Guide For Incremental Progression

Photo by Vitolda Klein on Unsplash

We say we want to be better, but at what?

What’s your aim?

What’s your target?

Think of something you want to achieve and keep it in mind.

Got it?

Great!

Once you have a target in mind, archive it.

The first mistake the enthusiastic make is doing everything at once.

Slow down.

Everyone wants to do the things they’re passionate about well.

And that’s doable.

But not all at once.

You can’t put your heart into everything at once without burning out.

And when you can’t afford to burnout,

The solution is to progress incrementally.

In just six steps, I can guarantee you’ll hit bullseye on every future target.

Take It Apart

Too many of us are attempting to build Rome in one fell swoop.

When we need to take it part by part,

Think back to the goal you had in mind initially.

Break it down into components.

Preferably into parts that are partially or completely achievable in a day.

Let’s take writing, for example:

I want to get better.

That’s a great prospective goal.

But it’s too broad.

I call these background goals.

These are your end-goals.

The things you’re working daily to achieve

The aim is to satisfy our background goals with the successes of our forefront goals.

Forefront goals are the things we can achieve either partially or completely in just one day.

These are your focus and the key to incremental progression.

If I wanted to get better, I would break it down.

To get better:

1. Outline what you can do.
2. Write down what you want to be able to do that you currently can’t.
3. Compare the two.

That comparison will be the basis of your forefront goals.

When you compare, you’re making the size of the gap between your current and your prospective clear.

Now the only thing left is to bridge the gap.

You might think this solves nothing.

I still don’t know how to bridge the gap.

Well, there’s your first forefront goal.

Find out how.

This is the best first step.

Too many of us dive in headfirst and get overwhelmed by the environment we’ve jumped into.

However, if you knew exactly what you were jumping into,

What to look out for

What to avoid, where to go, what to try, and when you can and cannot experiment

You would save yourself so much grief.

Too often, we fail first and research after.

When we can eliminate 70% of the preliminary failures from the get-go.

A great example of this was skipping.

I failed first.

I watched back the videos from my first attempts, and they were laughable.

Genuinely.

So, after failing dismally, I watched videos on how to nail the Boxer’s skip.

I researched.

In just five minutes of videos, I fixed all the problems mentally.

From posture change to wrist control

All of it was fixed.

None of that initial ugly failure had to happen, at least not to that extent.

So I encourage you, if you don’t know what step to take next.

Your next step is always to find out the next step.

The next best step is to choose an aspect of your research and master it.

That’s all.

Once you’ve mastered that goal,

Onto the next one.

And repeat.

Whenever you run out of forefront goals, research more.

Find out your next steps.

For me, after the Boxer’s skip, it was adding skipping tricks.

It took me two sessions, one yesterday morning and one this morning.

But, I’ve gone from not being able to do it at all,

To assimilating it whenever I want within my boxers skip.

And it took two days.

Interestingly, taking these small steps have been significantly more effective than my prior approach.

Instead of spreading my energy towards everything at once, taking it one step at a time has shown me the most growth.

There’s one critical aspect of progressing incrementally, beyond efficiency and thoroughness.

Reflection.

What I’ve found the most interesting is that the theory behind reflection isn’t just nonsense.

Hearing that your brain analyses and learns through reflection whilst you’re asleep and experiencing it are two very different things.

Last week Thursday, 06:00 am.

I couldn’t get the timing down for the Boxer’s skip.

I tried and tried for an hour and 15 minutes.

I couldn’t do it.

I had one run that lasted around 30 seconds, but I couldn’t recreate it.

Even though I knew that my timing was the issue,

I couldn’t put it into practice.

So, I carried on with my day.

The following day,

I woke up.

Got out of bed and tried again.

And I could do it.

Effortlessly.

I maintained it for 2 minutes.

And ever since then, I’ve just been able to do it.

Lucky?

Maybe.

So, I added a new trick.

Yesterday, I tried it for the first time.

I managed to do it three times in a row after 30 minutes of trying, but couldn’t recreate it.

I tried for an hour after to do it again.

I couldn’t.

And again, I slept.

I woke up the next day, and I could do it.

And I have the videos to prove it.

There’s something incredible about the human aptitude to reflect and adapt on a subconscious level.

My issue in the second instance was timing, wariness, and discomfort.

It was hard to maintain my bounce,

Whip the rope from my left side to my right side,

Bring both hands together and whip it in a figure-eight.

Then, get the right timing to bring my hands back out, jump over the rope and carry on skipping,

All at the same time.

Yet, I woke up, and all the above hurdles had disappeared.

I overcame all of that in my sleep.

The task was small enough for me to achieve it in a day and analyse all of my problems by the next day.

Incremental progression isn’t just about making the task doable.

It’s about creating the best conditions for progression.

If it’s perfection you’re after,

Choose incremental progression.

1. Pinpoint your background goal.
2. Find out how large the gap between you and your target is.
3. Break down the gap into daily goals.
4. Tackle them one day at a time.
5. Allow time for reflection.
6. Repeat.

If you can’t do it all at once,

Do it incrementally.

Guarantee perfection.

LM

Thank you for reading!

American psychologist Alok Konojia, or ‘HealthyGamerGG’, says:

“The absence of reflection is the reason you’re stuck.”

To solidify our growth, let’s reflect:

Petrichor’s 1-Minute Reflection:

• How did you feel before reading?
• How did you feel whilst reading?
• Do you feel any different now that you’ve finished?
• What is your one takeaway from reading this?

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