TGIM: The Pressing Need for Progress

Welcome back to Thank God It’s Monday!

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Have you ever felt stifled by your schedule? The monotony of waking up every day, doing the same routine, going to the same job, and watching the same TV begins to feel stale. The routine conversations with the same people become predictable. You wake up either unexcited for the bland day ahead or eagerly await your weekend plans because they are the only thing you have to look forward to.

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This sensation of feeling stuck fosters a life of acting out of fear, anger, and frustration. Without progress in your relationships, job, or character, you can develop fear of change, anger for the world not providing for you, and frustration with yourself for being in the situation you are in. It’s easy to blame your circumstances when feeling stuck in the world, but these emotions do not serve you.

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It’s easy to become complacent. You get comfortable in your relationships with your significant other, your family, and your friends. You’re put in fewer situations where you meet new people who challenge your beliefs of the world. Your job becomes a task you can do with your eyes closed and the demand to develop new skills diminishes. The troubles of the world become a highlight reel because you stop looking for the joy and the miracles.

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I truly believe one inherent need of humans is to make progress. This could mean progress in terms of growing a relationship with others, learning a new skill for work or for a hobby, or even evolving one’s relationship with the world. This progress is essential to us as people in order to feel fulfilled and abundant, but it requires effort and can fall to the wayside as a result of the demands of everyday life.

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But think about what happens when humans don’t progress. For example, when people reach the typical retirement age and stop working, they often fall into the habit of getting too comfortable in their own homes. I’m sure you can all think of a loved one who visibly ages faster after they retire because they stop progressing. Or think of diseases of the elderly such as dementia. While we don’t fully understand the effects of genetics and environment on how they manifest, they are clearly hastened by a lack of progress in life. As the sage wisdom goes, if we are not progressing, we are regressing.

We cannot feel abundant and fulfilled unless we are growing as individuals. Arguably, this growth should also contribute to the greater good (of society, community, the world, etc) in order to maximize this sense of fulfillment. You can consider this through a religious or spiritual sense, or from whatever sense you believe in, people are social humans and we are impacted by our effect on others. This further contributes to why people regress so quickly when they retire and interact with other people less. Decreased social interaction hastens cognitive decline, happiness, and fulfillment.

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In order to get yourself out of that stale rut in life, you have to consider these impacts. Consider what aspects of life you are progressing. Where are you stagnating? Have you grown in your role at your job? Have you done anything but gossip with your friends? Have you done anything with your free time besides engage in brain-rotting activities? While there is room and significance to rest and relaxation, an overabundance of it is killing your progress as a person and your happiness. You must progress to find fulfillment.

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Pick one area of your life where you want to see progress. Show your boss you’re ready to take on new responsibilities by challenging yourself with a new project. Or ask your friends if they want to do a fitness challenge or book club where you can grow physically or mentally. Even just listening to the podcast recommendation of the week and applying one new skill you learn will help you progress in your personal life. If you don’t want to do these things for the sake of progress, do them for your happiness. I promise tackling just one of these aspects will help you gain a new sense of fulfillment in life because you learn what you are capable of. See how your own growth can positively impact those around you and your outlook on life. Your distaste for your life is not a result of the world around you, it’s a result of how you put yourself out there.

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My podcast recommendation for this week is from The School of Greatness, “The #1 Financial Freedom Secret Rich People Won’t Tell You, with Code Sanchez.”

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With that, please find one area in your life where you want to progress. It is vital for happiness, fulfillment, and to make the most out of life. Codie Sanchez is this podcast recommendation says her goal in life is to know at the end that she gave it all. And to know we gave it all at the end of our lives requires progress until the very end.

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Until next time,
Shannon