Looking backwards

Disclaimer: No LLM content forward, so the bias is purely human.

There's a fair dose of honesty imprinted in the passion of a story that is told from the very midst of the character development arc. There's not yet a conclusion, so all the expectation is still there, but many things have already happened, so there's factual data to be leveraged while telling the story. Now, this matters for the simplest reason : I am in the midst of my character development, and this series of entries is far from the usual context of my posts and the topics that I used to talk. But it's probably what identifies me the most, what gives the essence to my everyday decisions, what nurtures my career, what drives my reason to be and act. And at the same time that I do this journey of self-exploration and definition, I think this "unprofessional" publishing will be relevant for professionals that might stumble onto this series.

Definitions

We start where we are. That's an obvious statement that we often overlook. The lack of attention over the present time and space is frequently the first mistake that we make in our projects. Beyond what it means in the organizational context, in our everyday living, in our family projects this is true with intensity. We daydream, we live in guilt, in hope, in fear, in reminiscence, and forget to realize that our plans can only start here and now. Nowhere else really makes sense to be considered as the starting point of our actions. And sure, there is a story attached to the way we came here, but that is the data that backs up the decisions, it is not the status itself of the things.

To define is to make a conscious effort to focus the attention in what we mean by anything. We live within ourselves, which makes easy to generalize and hard to empathize with the way others think about the things that we call common sense. It's not uncommon to our thought process to consider a message clear enough without considering what it is supposed to mean, both for us and for those who receive it or even more, the ones acting upon it.

So, what do we define? What should we define? Anything that we consider critical for our plans. Goals, means, relationships, agreements, currency, values, assets, everything that matters, should be clearly defined: For others, mainly, but also for our future selves. It is surprising how frequent is that we get to mean something entirely different by the words that we use when in different seasons of our lives. A strong definition is powerful, it gives you a point of reference of where your journey began and where you are supposed to get to by the end of it.

Rudiments

Practice makes perfect... Well, no.

Practice makes progress. But again, it starts with... Here and now, the only combo of time and place where I can practice any activity, any skill, any action. Making the best out of every individual action is always part of a greater scheme. Whether you believe or not in the metaphysical purpose behind learning, almost every interpretation will lead to the fact that information processing is cumulative. You learn, and the next thing will be piled up on top of that knowledge. You may remember it or not, you may ignore it or not, you may even forget it entirely, but some structure in your biology will pick a piece of the learning process as a step stone for the next organic data processing. And why is this important? Because no information is wasted in the process, but as with any vector, volition and will are key to determine the direction of the outcome. The practice that is made intentionally has a better chance to lead you to your destination than an unfocused improvisation, or even worse, a mindless repetition.

What to do? Mind your every step. You get your definitions clear? Trace your every step and its outcome. Learn cumulatively, learn piling knowledge on top of knowledge, intentionally.

Progressions

Increasing complexity is overrated, and underestimated. It's paradoxical, yet true. Any correct result (Correct is always a function of the consistent step in the right direction, which heavily implies that both the definitions and rudiments have been mastered) should ideally be repeated faster and stronger, right?

Well, not necessarily. Adding speed to a task is a matter of mastery, but also adding speed to a task may derive in a loss, rather than a gain from the experience perspective. You cannot enjoy faster, while actually you can enjoy deeper. So, if making a task faster and stronger is not the right progression, if adding complexity to a task is not the same as doing it more intensely and/or quickly, what is it?

It's improving in consistency and technique. Improving the agency on the outcome and the control on the process. Being mindful is about knowing, but also about understanding. And the mindfulness of a learning process is about recognizing the subtle queues of what happens every time we trigger the same action in the same consistent way. And one of my favorite examples are pushups. You can make 100 reps with a poor technique and your control over the outcome will be equally poor, you can make 10 reps with added weight and adding even more every time, or you can do 10 with a more conscious technique, not only knowing what you are doing, but controlling every rep a little more of all the muscles involved and then, you will be able to choose how to use those muscles for the purpose your chasing after.

This entry of the newsletter may not make sense by itself, which is perfectly fine, since it must make sense as a part of the series. But if a takeaway should be available from this reading, I wish it was something like:

Every growth process that we want to experience (Career, family, profession, learning, etc.) will be much richer if we can get our attention to be engaged in three aspects: The now and here, the step we are taking, and the increase of agency and control over the next step.