Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quantify yourself, or your \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in your life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Is the notion of progress important? What does \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d even mean?<\/p>\n
When we think about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, we think about comparing two states.<\/p>\n
For example if you could lift 100 pounds, then if next week you could lift 105 pounds, that is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (an additional 5 pounds).<\/p>\n
Apparently society \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progresses\u00e2\u20ac\u009d when there is a reduction of poverty, increased income for individuals, and more money saved in their bank accounts.<\/p>\n
The question I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m curious about is this:<\/p>\n
\nCan we live a happy and productive life without<\/em> thinking about the notion of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I think so! Let me advance my thinking:<\/p>\n
\nYou still technically \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, even though you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t measure it<\/h2>\n
Let us assume that you do chin-ups for fun. You never count your repetitions. You just keep doing them until you cannot do anymore.<\/p>\n
Let us assume you do chin-ups everyday for a year, and you eat lots of eggs and bacon on the daily.<\/p>\n
I assume that your ability to do chin-ups will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d without you tracking your workouts or repetitions. Certainly your arm muscles will \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d by getting bigger.<\/p>\n
Thus, it is obvious that (at least physically), we can progress in our strength without tracking or measuring it.<\/p>\n
\nCan life be quantified?<\/h2>\n
There is currently a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quantified self\u00e2\u20ac\u009d movement, in which people try to quantify their self-worth and progress in life via numbers, metrics, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153change over time\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
But to me, this is nonsense. Why?<\/p>\n
Just because someone weighs more or less than you doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make them \u00e2\u20ac\u0153better\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than you. Just because someone earns more money than you, it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean you are any \u00e2\u20ac\u0153lesser\u00e2\u20ac\u009d than them. Just because someone has more social media followers than you doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a better photographer, or a better artist.<\/p>\n
The big problem is this:<\/p>\n
\nMany people seek motivation in life via seeing their numbers advance, to see their progress in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153fact\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Yet, I think this is a bad way of thinking, because it ultimately means that numbers are more important than your own personal (unquantifiable) desires, needs, and ambitions. Of the things in life that really matter, you cannot (and should not) attach a number to it. Would you \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quantify\u00e2\u20ac\u009d your love for your partner or child? Obviously not. Would you want to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quantify\u00e2\u20ac\u009d how delicious food is by measuring the temperature of the meat? Obviously not.<\/p>\n
Would you \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quantify\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the wisdom of someone by some arbitrary metric? Of course not!<\/p>\n
\nEliminate the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from our dictionary<\/h2>\n
My simple takeaway is this:<\/p>\n
\nDon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quantify your progress in life.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Even more dramatic, don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think about \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. Just eliminate the word from your vocabulary (via negativa notion of success).<\/p>\n
Instead, just focus on the present moment. Be concentrated and focused every moment during your day to act in accordance with what you desire to do, achieve, and create in your life!<\/p>\n
LIVE ON!\nERIC<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quantify yourself, or your \u00e2\u20ac\u0153progress\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_ek_photo_artist_note":"","_ek_photo_thesis":"","_ek_photo_camera":"","_ek_photo_place":"","_ek_photo_human_moment":"","_ek_photo_sequence":"","_ek_photo_question":"","_ek_photo_canonical_claim":"","_ek_photo_ai_summary":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-posts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/eric-kim-OC-v19-xf10-2018-3222-scaled.jpg?fit=6000%2C4000&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123952,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123951\/revisions\/123952"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}