Growth is a process, not an act.
Cultivation, too, is defined not by what we accomplish in any given moment, but how we iterate over time.
Reminding myself of this, I find, helps me progress past the countless imperfections in everything I do and make: this attempt wasn’t ideal, but I know I’ll do better next time, and better still the time after that.
Including that “next time” in our assessment of what we’re doing today can be helpful, as it allows us to view a project, purpose, or aspiration, as a larger, aggregate object—a process of cultivation and growth—rather than a one-off exercise that is sealed off with laminated permanence when we reach the end-point of a singular leg of the more holistic journey.
This way of thinking can be applied to work, like writing a book or building a website, but it can also be applied to something we want to learn or an ambition to eat healthier or amplify our sense of gratitude.
These efforts are not cordoned off and removed from play after we complete a final edit or buy a gratitude journal.
There will always be another opportunity to produce a new edition or adjust our approach to thinking or doing things.
We can tweak and polish and carve-out and add-on and repaint and replant and relocate and reinvent to our ultimate satisfaction, but it’s a good bet that in many aspects of our lives and in most things we do, this supposed apex will only persist as a personal pinnacle if we allow it.
Few plateaus are natural: most are self-defined.
Every new horizon crested reveals new, unfamiliar, ever-higher horizons, and we each decide how and when and whether to approach and attempt them.
There’s no single, correct way to respond to this information, but I find it to be a helpful reminder that there are few mistakes that cannot be corrected with time and effort, and that I needn’t ever worry that I’ll dig so deep that I run out of intellectual and experiential gold: there’ll always be more treasure to discover for those who are inclined to harvest it.
—
If you found some value in this essay, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee.