Today I learned that I have to cherish incremental growth. For awhile I was stoked as I began to start seeing changes in my life. I really enjoyed the fact that standing up for myself and embracing confrontation wasn’t such a hard thing anymore. I really enjoyed the fact that I was passing all my classes and finally could see a feasible path to moving out of my mom’s home. And I certainly enjoyed the fact that I was getting more female attention compared to what I got in the previous years. But there was something in me that began to compare my minor successes with the grand slam wins of others I consider peers. I began to grow dismayed that the girls I was dealing with weren’t half as attractive as the girls my friends were dealing with it. The joy of completing junior college got thwarted when I began to realize that people younger than me had already graduated University. And even though standing up for myself wasn’t a big issue anymore there were still some people that I couldn’t work myself up quickly enough to escalate the situation. So even though I had become more than I was I realized that I hadn’t come that far. I started to not appreciate the progression I made. Instead of cherishing my incremental growth so far in many ways I neglected it and let some of it rot. Today it dawned upon me that incremental growth is the surest way things develop. In many areas it’s the only way things developed. Slowly but surely. A little here a little there. Almost taking too much time for the unwatchable eye to notice. But building something over time that grows incrementally whether it’s better character or a pathway to a better job seems now to me the best way to do it. But sometimes it hard for me to appreciate the process becuase the gains are so small. But I honestly feel like if I stay in line with the disciplines the gains will compound over time. I can’t ignore the small steps forwards I’ve made so far because the next action is to then not take the disciplines seriously and then recede farther than where I started. I have to cherish the incremental growth because even with hardwork there is no law that promises change. I have to be thankful for that and do all I can to keep pouring it on. The tortoise won the race not the hair.