The Most Important Lesson I’ve Learned About Progress

In every moment, you have a choice.

You either give into your old self and do what you know you shouldn’t do.

Or you lean into the person you could be and what you know you should do.

The choice you make in every moment will dictate the outcomes of your life.

You can either take the easy path and stay stuck where you are, never moving forward and wasting your potential, or you can take the harder path and progress into your potential.

EVERYONE wants to choose the 2nd option but the vast majority of people never do.

They take the easy path, the one that requires no effort and hence, produces no results.

The problem is that you always think you can lean into the person you could be, later.

You say to yourself, “I’ll do that tomorrow”, “I’ll start on Monday”, or “I’ll start after I finish this book”

You have this idea that your future self, you tomorrow, will do the right thing, beat resistance and do the work, that somehow the “tomorrow” version of you will be so much better than you are now.

But what you don’t realise is that there is no future you.

There is only you right now.

The version of you that you imagine you’ll be tomorrow doesn’t exist.

You’ll wake up and you’ll still be you - you will still be exactly who you are right now.

After all, progress on a daily scale is microscopic AND that progress relies on you doing the right things.

If you choose to take the easy option now and put off the things you know are right until tomorrow then you’ve made no progress in this moment or throughout this day.

So how can you expect the tomorrow version of you to be so much better than you are today if you don’t do anything to create that improvement?

For those 2 reasons, the version of you that you think you’ll be tomorrow is no different from who you are today.

BUT who you are is a mix between 2 people.

The old you and the person you could be.

The version of you that does what feels good and the version of you that does what they know is right.

And so you have to make a deal.

You have to say to yourself in this very moment that you will do what the person you could be, would do, right now.

You don’t put it off for future you to do, because there is no future you.

The future does not exist.

There is only this very moment and so neither change nor action can happen in the future, only now.

By making this deal you commit to doing the right thing and creating microscopic progress that means the version of you from the very moment you make this deal is a tiny bit better than the old you.

With each moment you choose to do the right thing, understanding that there is only now and so it’s now or never, you create microscopic progress that compounds over time, moment to moment, changing your life.

In each moment you have this choice.

Do what feels good or do what you know is right.

Choose wisely.

— Ross

PS: If you want to make the right choice in every moment, get out of your own way and smash every goal you set, click here.