Progress, how to define it and measure how it’s going? Let me share an example. The real estate market in our area is booming. Houses are selling, homes are being built and every kind of commercial project is somehow in process all around us. This is indeed progress, some of us think it is more like progress with a question mark. Just because things are growing and new does not mean that it is all good. Where progress is concerned we have to swallow the good with the questionable, the hope is that somewhere someone has a plan.
I was speaking with one of my clients today about the progress they have made in the last year. I had encouraged them to write down their own accomplishments list so they could actually see the incredible things they had built. They read me the list and were astonished by everything they did. This is a great example of progress, the kind that we often overlook because it happens so slowly that deadlines come and go without any fanfare or celebration. When we fail to recognize the things we have done it can be hard to ask for what we want when promotion or evaluation time rolls around.
On a personal note, I am working on a book series using the art I have created for this blog. Exciting thing is I already have people who want to buy a copy or copies (very cool!) In my mind I had ideas and now it’s time to finish up the work. This has meant breaking down this daunting task into smaller bites. Progress looks like moving from one task to another moving forward with the end goal in mind. I can see the end and have a personal deadline for the first book in the series.
I realize that sometimes progress is easier to accomplish for other people than it is for ourselves. We put others before ourselves and before we know it we are last on the list with no energy to get anything moving forward. This is when these words from Marie Curie hit home – neither swift nor easy. No kidding! Being able to handle the slow along with the work is progress in itself, not to mention actually seeing an end result. Self discipline, self confidence and putting what we want FIRST may feel selfish yet in reality that too is progress. We are worth the time and effort, as much as what we want is important if only to ourselves.
Be it constructing a new home, new buildings, documenting our own successes or putting time aside for what we want done, progress takes many forms. And progress is indeed neither swift nor easy. The thing to remind ourselves is that steps forward, no matter how long they take, are progress. If we keep at it we will get there in the end. So progress, make it a priority for yourself and your world, small steps to success.
Ann Art Gallery Blog 