This morning during my workout, I was told by my fitness trainer to shift to a lower weight and try an exercise to better my form and posture. Much to my dismay (read frustration) I huffed and puffed and against all my wishes, I finally did shift to a lower weight. Well, I did much better than what I was doing and the lower weight helped me understand where I was going wrong with the greater weight. Having understood that, the new weight was a breeze and all was accomplished.
That got me to thinking about Progression.
Is progression really about going upward or rather simply put – from a lower to a higher step? Is it about the ascent or is it also about going one step lower just so you achieve that higher step better? Or is it just a perception of each individual? A perception based on what it means to you and what your measure of success is. Does it mean going back that half step just so that you can be better at the two-step jump which awaits ahead of you?
In a job, you are meant to be assessed by your boss.
As an entrepreneur, you are expected to assess yourself.
In training, it’s your trainer who assesses you.
Good assessment is a key element here. So learn to trust the ones who hold your goals and aspirations as their own.
The trainer who tells you to leave a higher weight and move to a lower one just so that your form and posture is correct. It’s his job to avoid an injury so that the strengthening is right. Because if the base is right, then when the time comes, it also his job to give you that weight higher than what you had last left it at.
As an entrepreneur, an ego boost does wonders with more sales, more achievements, more rewards and higher accolades. But at no point in time should this ego interfere with the quality of work such as messing it up when the setup is unmanageable. Then the learning, and therefore the progression, itself lies in learning to say NO and to let go, only so that you strengthen your base. Once this step is achieved, the jump up is much quicker than what you would have expected it to be.
In a job, a good team, a good boss, learns and helps you identify your shortcomings and assists you in bettering yourself just so that you get that one promotion that you probably had not even thought of. What you waited for, what you aspired for may not come at the time you expected it to. Not to sound philosophical, but then sometimes, the wait in the position gets you so much better than the rest. The strengthening of the base is what matters.
So keep going at it. Trust the instinct and believe in the process.
Shalaka
