Josh Beck @JT_Beck: is cumulative/constant improvement the most important “thing” in life?
Answer:
I wanted constant improvement. But I didn’t know what it meant. I felt it meant better money, better jobs, better women, better friends, more control over the aspects of my life that I felt were out of control. I then felt I could “spend” in those area: have bad relationships, experiment with things and in ways I shouldn’t experiment, spend where I shouldn’t, and in general purge myself of the good will I created via “constant improvement”.
Now I think the opposite. The best way to have constant improvement is to decrease constantly the things you feel the need to improve. Everything you want to improve is something external. More money. Better athlete, better at public speaking, better at writing. Perhaps I am just projecting these things and these are all the things I want to improve. But to have a goal is to be constantly striving and building to achieve that goal. And then once you achieve it, what’s next? More goals? Less? Do you roll down the mountain and get disappointed. or do you get disappointed there are higher and higher goals to reach, never reaching the highest of all.
For me, better to sit, being happy and grateful with what’s outside, but giving up all goals on the inside. If you truly want for nothing, then all your goals and dreams will be achieved.