Yesterday I did one more push-up than I did the day before that.
Just one.
That’s not very impressive, but sometimes one more is enough. Progress is made in increments of one. One more push up. One more second meditating. One more word put on paper. One less calorie consumed. One step closer to a goal.
Sometimes I get caught up in the vastness of what I want to accomplish. The mountains of physical fitness, writing a book, creating a practice overwhelms me and I feel so small. Defeat is inevitable. But, I take one more step, and that’s enough. With one more step, I can work my way along this beautiful trail of life and climb any mountain. Of course, the mountain doesn’t really exist, at the top will be more trails and more peaks to shoot for. Endpoints and victories are illusions, all we have is the path and the steps we take.
There are days when I feel super productive and knock out dozens of tasks. I hit a new personal best 2-mile run, I read 100 pages, I write dozens, I work 8 hours, I clean the house and rake the yard. My “to do” list disappears at an alarming rate. I sprint towards my goal on those days and it just feels So. Damn. Good.
Then there are days like yesterday, where my progress is less like a sprint and more like a forward collapse. It is easy to beat myself up for days like yesterday. “Why can’t I be more like my previous self and see huge progress? Why can’t I be more productive with my time and spend less time slacking? Why only one push up?”
Because some days one is all you have in you, but one is good enough. One is perfect. One is progress.
Wandering Oak 