[20] From the moment they get up in the morning they adhere to their ideals, eating and bathing like a person of integrity, putting their principles into practice in every situation they face – the way a runner does when he applies the principles of running, or a singer those of musicianship [21] – that is where you will see true progress embodied.
Epictetus, On Progress, 1.4
I’ve been thinking a lot lately on the idea of how we improve, show up, and make progress. All of these words can have multiple definitions and meaning. Is it enough to just show up to something? Is 1% better good enough when improving at things? Are we even improving ourselves in the things that matter? How do we show your work?
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Last episode I spoke about consistency being the key to making progress. If we want to get stronger, we need to consistently lift heavy things. If we want to be fitter, we need to exercise regularly and eat well. Want to be a better guitarist? We need to pick up the guitar and play some chords.
I have a tendency at times to want more information (what I would previously refer to as knowledge) before I go and do the thing. Perhaps I’ll read one more article, or watch one more YouTUbe video, or complete one more test before I go and do the actual thing. But it never becomes just one more. One article becomes many. One video becomes many more, and so forth. At some point, we need to show our work.
My view on knowledge has evolved. To me, it’s not just about knowing what or how, it’s also being able to do the thing. The realisation of the information that you have. Showing your work. Demonstrating your skills.
To me, it’ not good enough if you know all of the intricacies or information of how to build a website but you can’t do the first step, or if you know how to repair a car but as soon as the bonnet is cracked upon you can’t do anything. We can’t hoard information. We need to use it and thus have knowledge. Nowadays you could say that it would be having wisdom.
Showing our work doesn’t mean that we have to be excellent or perfect. Starting out, we aren’t going to show greatness as we are still learning. We’re developing our skillset, our design methods, how we express our thoughts, our dexterity to play instruments, our brain to speak and listen to a new language. Excellence is not the goal. Making progress is. It’s being okay with being a beginner and doing the best that we can do, not worrying about an external benchmark on where you need to be in order to ‘show up.’ It’s only by gaining experience that we level up.
That means, for me, reluctantly in some ways, that I need to just publish regularly. To put my work and thinking out there. Stretch myself each article. To get better, slightly, each time. It means sharing better examples, stories, ways to use and apply information. It also means being vulnerable with having work out there – in its imperfect form, open to criticism, feedback, and also celebration and praise. Our unique stories and perspectives can help others.
A few years ago I started taking guitar lessons. It was something I had wanted to do for quite a while. Having spent a lot of time overseas and in the backcountry, my music taste slowly changed and country was where it was at for me. Learning to play the guitar would be awesome, I thought, as I could strum some tunes and sing some of my favourite songs when camping. Learning how to play was much harder than I thought.
I also took quite a few attempts at it. For me the barrier to entry was easier as I already had a guitar. Still, it was years before I actually decided to pick it up, rather than in my mind saying that I should start playing. I tried a few teach ourself apps and videos and quickly got nowhere. Feeling frustrated, I eventually enrolled in private lessons. Totally failing in front of someone is never a pleasant experience. I was terrible on my first lesson. And second, and many others. Eventually, through great teaching and patience from my teacher, I actually got out a song that almost sounded like a song.
Soon, we were refining the chorus, and after a couple of months I could play some passable music. Not that I continued in the long term. My interest wained (perhaps being a beginner still, after many months, played a part, I’m not sure) and I devoted my time to other endeavours. Still, I put my work out there, and I’m happy about that. Show your work.
Showing your work, making progress, does mean having boundaries. This is something I spoke about last episode on consistency. There is only so much we can accomplish each day. We have finite time and unlimited possibilities. Our boundaries need to contain us so that we are focused on what we want in the time we have available. It’s tricky. We have to consider what is important to us, where we want to head, who we want to be, and if the activities we want to make progress in align. If they don’t, perhaps we shouldn’t do it.
The first step is to start, put our work out there, learn, improve, put more work out there, and make progress. Show your work.