Call to Action: Week 2
Welcome back to week 2! Thank you for making this newsletter possible. I owe you one - So I plan to release a special edition of my newsletter after the 6th week of Call to Action, as a special thank you to my initial subscribers. I will share more information on the special edition in the next few weeks!
Today, I would like to share with you an interesting question I came across from Rosie Sherry, community manager at Indie Hackers.
Where were you this time, last year?
How are you doing now compared to a year ago?
It is so easy to lose sight of the bigger picture as time goes by. Especially when you are in the midst of a pandemic. When you feel like there is no progress in the world anymore. And life has shrunk to a number of house chores or zoom calls.
But is that accurate?
Take time to reflect on this question.
You may be surprised at how your life has changed during this short time. If you are not comfortable with last year, feel free to check with how you were the past month, or past week even.
Is there progress? You may want to write it down.
Why is it important to ask this question?
Before I answer this, I want share an enlightening piece of information about progress from Morgan Housel’s recent article. He is the author of the book The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness.
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In 1955 alone, more than 700,000 people died of heart disease in America.
Compare that to today’s data. The fatality rate from heart disease at present is down by 70% since 1955. This means, more than 25 million lives have been saved over the years.
How was that possible? Something was happening behind the scenes. Over the years the doctors kept working on improving the treatment. Probably with multiple setbacks. Yet they persisted. With a relatively insignificant 1.5% progress a year. And it gradually resulted in whopping 70% improvement in 65 years, saving more than 25 million lives.
Read it in Morgan’s words:
Growth always fights against competition that slows its rise. New ideas fight for attention, business models fight incumbents, constructing a building fights gravity. There’s always a headwind. But everyone gets out of the way of decline. Insiders might try to stop it, but it doesn’t attract masses of outsiders who rush in to push back in the other direction like progress does.
The irony is that growth and progress is way more powerful than setback. But setback will always get more attention because of how fast it occurs. So slow progress amid a drumbeat of bad news is the normal state of affairs. It’s not an easy thing to get used to, but it’ll always be with us.
Let that sink in.
This is the way progress works - with slow and arguably insignificant improvements over time. Keep track of your progress by asking the right questions. You would then feel content about your little improvements, and figure out the uncontrollable elements that are not worth your time. This is how you and I review ourselves, find out where we are heading and steer towards the direction that we want.
Thank you for reading. Do let me know what you think by replying to this newsletter or commenting on the original post. You can also view my previous post here.