Defining Progress

When you first start your career, "Progress" seems to be pretty easy to define.

There is Progress going from no job to your first job.

Going from knowing little/nothing to having a great grasp of your work.

Having an entry-level position to your first promotion.

Obtaining your first recognition for the work you do.

In the beginning, it is very easy to determine if you're making Progress.

But what about at a later point in your career?

You've had a job for a long period of time, or even multiple jobs within the same industry.

You are considered a master at what you do.

Many promotions have occurred.

You've been recognized multiple times in many ways for your contributions.

There's a point where many of these things just don't feel like "Progress" anymore.

Maybe it sounds a little egotistical, but it can feel that there is almost an unspoken "knowing" that more of these things will come.

Not that you don't work hard, not that you expect it without "earning" it.

It's more that, when you really give things your all, it becomes a foreseeable result.

How do you determine progress when promotion, mastery, and recognition don't feel like "Progress" anymore?

Most people think that you've got to go "Bigger" in this case.

But I believe this is the wrong way to think about it.

There's a point where, even if there is a "Bigger" that exists, it isn't "that" much of a difference.

Plus, even if you attain the "Biggest", what comes after that?

I believe there's a better way to understand Progress as you go further in life.

To me, there are two ways to see further Progress as you get further on the path.

One is to find Progress in the smallest of things.

In martial arts, there is a quote from Bruce Lee that hits deeply at this.

"I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once. But I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

As we dive more deeply into the seemingly most insignificant of details, there is a new level of creativity that is born.

Where most people see insignificant changes, a world of nuances opens up to the person who looks for them.

Progress is defined not in the seen but rather in the unseen.

It isn't about what is recognized but rather what is felt.

There is subtlety in Progress at this level.

When you get to the top 1% of something, you can see major differences with just 0.1% Progress.

When you exist in the top 0.1%, you can see differences even in 0.0001% that most people are blind to and can't even comprehend.

Progress simply takes a new form that is not easily recognizable to anyone except for those at that level.

There is another way to Progress at these further levels, but it doesn't exist within us.

Rather, there is a new world of possibilities that opens up within others.

Progress stops being about "ourselves", and begins to spread to others.

What you can do by yourself is amazing, but what happens when that progress happens with 2 people?

5 people?

10 people?

100 people?

1,000 people?

What potential exists at those levels?

What Progress can happen when there is a force of individuals aligned?

What does Progress begin to look like when it moves beyond just People?

What does it start to look like when it impacts groups, teams, businesses, cultures, or even the world?

When you reach these two levels of Progress, everything changes.

Our perception of Progress morphs into something completely new.

These are the levels of Progress I seek in life.

I can't claim that I am "there" of course.

But in different parts of my life, I see the beginnings of these, and I feel the inklings of them.

How much further can I go?

What will Progress look like tomorrow?

These questions excite me!