On Progress

progress
noun
/ˈprəʊɡrɛs/
1.
forward or onward movement towards a destination.
"the darkness did not stop my progress"
synonyms: forward movement, onward movement, progression, advance, advancement, headway, passage; going
"ceaseless rain made further progress impossible"
2.
development towards an improved or more advanced condition.
"we are making progress towards equal rights"
synonyms: development, advance, advancement, headway, step(s) forward, progression, improvement, betterment, growth; breakthrough
"the progress of medical science"

balance
/ˈbal(ə)ns/
Learn to pronounce
noun
1.
an even distribution of weight enabling someone or something to remain upright and steady.
"she lost her balance and fell"
synonyms: stability, equilibrium, steadiness, footing
"I tripped and lost my balance"
2.
a situation in which different elements are equal or in the correct proportions.
"the obligations of political balance in broadcasting"
synonyms: fairness, justice, impartiality, egalitarianism, equal opportunity;

Well, it's been quite a while since I've written anything for my blog. Life has been incredibly busy and challenging lately but all in a good way. Working at my little English school, spending time with my kids, learning to code and generally just feeling like there's never enough time. So it goes. Here I'd like to share some thoughts and observations on the notions of progress and balance and of how they relate to each other.

You see, in my overt and concentrated attempt to progress in software development  and all things "businessy" during this year of our lord 2019, I've come to analyze the nature of progress and, by default, the cognitive struggle that comes along with learning how to do something new; especially if that something new is also initially very difficult (and software development is initially very difficult, let me tell you). And that is why I've been forced to so directly confront the nature of what the transformation from desire, to acquisition of a new skill (or anything desired, really) is like. Perhaps it is the current level of responsibility in my life, perhaps the dissatisfaction with the thought of being "but an 'Anglish teacher" here in Japan the rest of my days or perhaps it is simply a stubborn and persistent regret at not having explored these kinds of options sooner which has left me here with a sense of needing to make up for lost time. Whatever it is, I have become acutely aware of the experience of learning and progressing in a way I never have before. And so now, I will jabber about it. :-)

What I've realized is that the elements of time and effort cannot be bypassed. At best, the element of time can be shortened somewhat and the element of effort optimized but only to a degree. We are also very much limited by our biology and, more crucially, our neurology. Further, an understanding of these limits can actually help us in achieving whatever it is we want to achieve. And that is because we are able to leverage the elements we can control and to preserve the health and well-being of those we can't. Call it patience, if you like.

In the desire to progress there is an inevitable sense of motivation and a yearning for things to happen as soon as possible. In a way, we wish for things to change just as quickly and completely in the physical realm as the do in the mental and emotional realm. And, silly as it sounds, it can take one a very long time to see the fallacy of this line of thinking. And that is mostly because very few of us notice that is what we are doing and still fewer would willingly admit it. The end result of this, besides possibly a colorful imagination, is a general propensity toward stress and frustration about things not being as we'd like them.

But that is not to say that being dissatisfied about things not being as we'd like them is necessarily a negative thing.  On the contrary, such a feeling can often serve as an impetus to make them better and that, ladies and gents, is where all things human-made have come from. Yes, if not for some proto-human in the ancient, ancient past (let's call him Thok assuming it was not a woman) on the African Savannah transforming, for the first time in the known history of this planet, his blunt and nagging dissatisfaction with the status quo into action that thereby created the first tools or the first forms of language etc. we would still all be just a bunch of Thoks sitting around thinking about food, sex and water (although not necessarily in that order, mind you) out there with rest of the animals. Animals.

There is something unique about the human ability to do this: transform desire and dissatisfaction into creative action resulting in concrete and measurable changes in the world within and without them. And this transformation is where all the trouble starts, too. That is unless you know how to work with the process --- how to progress with balance.

Progress with balance where progress is a verb and not a noun. That seems to be the real key. Because if you can work with the natural forces, the evolutionary forces of your mind and body, you can move forward much more smoothly while understanding the nature of what is going on. If you can't, you will likely encounter some of the following pitfalls:

unrealistic expectations

arrogance

exhaustion

more harm done than good

regret

burnout and abandonment

lost time

damaged relationships

poor health