Focus because the world is out to get your attention!

You know that, however, are you aware of the extent to which you are being externally influenced?

Don’t allow your progress to fall prey to what you can control.

The duality of the compass (direction) and the clock (time) are reasons why examining our lives is crucial, if not inevitable. Progress is governed by the continual interplay of these two ‘masters’, and if we are not strategic with them, our efforts will produce random results, mediocrity, and even worse, the associated feelings that go with them.

Progress is:

• the reason for every personal and organisational existence
• the result when qualified inputs are successfully processed
• development – implying growth, improvement, and moving ahead despite setbacks
• personal and purposeful – let me expand on this – …

Progress is personal. Our existential nature impresses the need for us to find meaning in life so that we can, through doing, validate the reasons for our ‘being.’

I believe ‘progressing’ begins, in earnest, through existential questioning and is largely shaped by whether we believe in a temporal or an everlasting life.

Our answer to these questions will facilitate decision making, guide us in what we do, and how we ought to go about doing it.

Progress is purposeful. We know that when personal fulfilment criteria are not being met, we are restless and experience feelings of emptiness. Our gut feeling is that something is missing. While submerging or treading water we go through the day with varying degrees of anxiety and devoid of passion.

Intrinsic drive fades, our sense of autonomy is weakened, and confusion and doubt seep into our decision-making. Activities are approached with less enthusiasm, curiosity wanes, and commitment recedes.

Life can become awkward and heavy. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Commit to consistently building upon what you already have and expect the progress that follows when your personal ambitions are prioritised and purposefully processed!

I am the author of Leading Self and Others (how to make a difference where you are with what you’ve got) and Teaming with ideas (life lessons on teams – from business, sport and parkrun). You can contact me here.