The world is so big.

Yet it feels so small.

Every morning, at about the same time,

I get out of the same bed.

Do a few of the same exercises.

Wear the same clothes.

Drive the same car on the same roads.

Walk into the same office.

Eat about the same foods.

See the same people.

Do the same work.

So much of every day, every week, every month, and every year is the same as the last.

You can change it up, but the new becomes the same.

Repeat and repeat and repeat.

Then one day you die.

So you have to learn to enjoy the same.

Practitioners. One can do what they do very well but know very little about how they do it and how to teach it. Consider the person who can run very fast but be unable to explain or teach you how. (“Just do it”)

Scholars. One can know a lot about a skill but be able to do little of it and be unable to teach it. Consider the person who can explain everything in a sports game but can’t play or teach how to play.

Professors. One can teach what they know and can do, but they know and can do very little compared to the broader overall scope of the skill. Consider the white belt who knows only a few techniques but can teach them well to a newer white belt.

Every skill has three fundamental actions for improvement: to study, practice, and share.

To study is to learn more about what’s possible and to learn more details about what you know is possible. It’s to expand your horizons and improve your depth of understanding.

To practice is to integrate the skill into your nature. It’s to become so familiar that it requires less thought and intention to execute.

To share is to give to others what you know and can do. It’s to demonstrate your abilities and reveal your insights. You can do this in discussions, lectures, and performances.

I believe that for almost any skill, and for almost everyone, there’s a limit to how good you can become without pursuing all three areas of excellence and executing all three actions for improvement.

One can know and do their craft very well, but they can still learn much from teaching it. One can study and practice their craft with great vigor and discipline, but they can still learn much from sharing it.

Every discipline needs people in all corners of the triangle. Without good practitioners, the discipline will be abstract and far from life. Without good scholars, the discipline will stagnate and deep knowledge will get lost. Without good professors, the highest levels of skill will die with the older generations of practitioners and scholars.

In college, my professors posted the average scores for each exam. If you want a B+ in the class, you need average scores on each exam. If you want an A, you need to beat the averages by about one standard deviation. The only way you can be sure you’ll get an A is to get the highest score.

Averages and highs are useful in a few ways. They provide benchmarks and help set expectations. I’m not that different from most people. When I look at a new skill, I think to myself, if most people take an average amount of time to get to an average level of skill, then I probably will too. Then, when I reach the average or attain the high, I have stats to justify my sense of competence or confidence.

But there’s a few problems with chasing averages and highs.

First, averages depend on cohorts. Maybe your school, city, state, region, and country each has its own average. If you forget the cohort, you might think you’re better or worse than you really are. If you score a perfect score on an exam, then you got the same score as everyone else who got a perfect score, so in a way, you’re not that special. But if you’re an average pro athlete, and you perform about as well as other pro athletes, you might forget that you’re way better than just about any casual.

Second, if you focus too much on averages and cohorts, you can forget about yourself and stagnate. If you have a target ranking within a target cohort, then you limit yourself when you reach it. There are usually better cohorts. Even if you’re the number one in the best cohort, you can still polish and improve. The way to do that is to focus on improving your own craft instead of beating others. I think that’s why many top performers beat their own records. To be your best, you must beat yourself.

If you want to grow and be your best, then ask yourself, how have you performed in the last six weeks compared to the previous six weeks? Move your average instead of chasing the rankings. Progress, growth, and recovery take time. Not every day is going to be good. You just need more good days than bad days, and after many weeks, you’ll hopefully be better than you were.

I’m at a time in my life where life is easy. I’m single. I don’t have any kids. I have a manageable, well-paying job, and I live with my parents. I have few responsibilities and no significant expenses besides my gym fees and student loans.

But I know that my life will not always be so easy. One day, I’ll probably get married and have kids. One day, I’ll lose my parents. The labor market will not always treat me and my skills so well. Unforeseen circumstances can take everything away from me.

So, today and every day, I have a choice. I can take it easy by spending my free time consuming media like video games, television, and movies. I can challenge myself by studying, working out, and practicing martial arts. I can find some balance in-between.

While I have an easy life, I choose to build my strength and resilience. I want to be physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as tough, capable, and confident as I can be. I want to believe that I can do and survive anything, so that I can decide what to do based on what is good rather than what I can or can’t do.

There are few things in life where the work we put in has a direct impact on the results that we see. School, work, and relationships are not those things because they depend on other people. Studying, fitness, and martial arts, however, are some of those things. The more we show up and the more effort we put in, the better results we get. The more work we put in, the more we improve in all four dimensions, and the better we are.

I choose to show up every day so that I may be challenged, and so that I may grow stronger. The hardest part is showing up. Once I’m there, all I have to do is follow the routine, and it will take care of itself. I can trust the process to see progress. The progress will be there, even if it’s small, but small progress is better than none, and it’s often good enough because it compounds, like interest in a bank account.

I’m a little better today than I was yesterday. I’m much better today than I was six months ago. I’m way better than I was when I started. We can make the most of life by making the most of every day, and we do that by showing up.

Dear Journal,

I went swimming this morning. When I was walking from my car to the gym, I was a little flustered and annoyed because of how late I was. I woke up at 6am sharp for my 7am pool reservation, but I struggled to get out the door because I needed to finish packing for my activities afterward. It was already 7:03am, and I still needed to undress and put my stuff in my locker before hopping into the pool.

I wanted to walk fast, but I had to be careful because the sidewalk was wet from last night’s rain. When I was about halfway down the walkway, I saw something on the ground through my peripheral vision. I made sure to not step on it in case it was a living thing. I didn’t want to kill it or get my shoes dirty.

I recognized it as a snail, but I didn’t think much of it. After a few paces, I realized how significant it was, and I went back to take a few photos. I rarely see snails, and I rarely have an opportunity to take a photo of them on a wet sidewalk in the early morning. It didn’t matter that I was already late for my pool. I was having a moment, and it could wait a little longer.

As I took a few photos of the snail and watched it crawl across the sidewalk, I realized that crossing a sidewalk is a long journey for the snail. It’s also quite dangerous, with humans walking across it. It made me think to myself that it doesn’t matter how slowly I go as long as I don’t give up. As long as I don’t stop because I’m too tired or lazy, I can take my time to progress in certain things in life. I can progress at a pace that’s right for me.

I felt that this was my lesson for the day, one that God and circumstance had given me. On Friday, I asked God for strength on my morning run, one that gave me a new personal best for my 5K, and today I received some wisdom for my swim. I put my stuff away, rinsed in the cold outdoor shower, and got into the pool. I felt much better in it than I had three weeks ago, which was the last time I swam. Before that, I hadn’t swam in over six months.

The pool was warm and the sky was clear with a few puffs of clouds. The sun was peeking through them just over the horizon. It was a beautiful morning, and I was ready. I started with a few laps of freestyle, and it was so easy. I did more warm up laps, going freestyle down and breaststroke back. Each lap was 25 yards, so going down and back was 50 yards. I decided to aim for an arbitrary goal of 2000 yards for today. I had no idea how long it would take or how difficult it would be. I just knew that I wanted to do it.

After about 500 yards, I felt fatigue starting to settle in. I could feel in my mind and my body that 200 yards was not going to be easy. I was mostly doing freestyle down and breaststroke back, but I also did a few laps of backstroke and butterfly. I was worried that I chose a goal that was too difficult. I thought about reducing it, but I remembered the snail. It doesn’t matter how slowly I go as long as I don’t give up. I sucked up the fatigue and kept going.

At about 1250 yards, a stranger had come to share the lane with me. I was in the small warm pool, which has 6 lanes and is heated to 86°F to 88°F. I liked the small pool because it was warm, and I wanted to go easy on my muscles. Swimming was something that I wanted to start again to help me recover from martial arts and strength training while working my cardio. The small pool is also shallow enough to stand in. I wasn’t confident in my swimming abilities, so I could give up on a lap any time by standing up. I figured that I could start here and go to the big pool when I felt more confident. The big pool is an Olympic-sized one, so it’s 20 lanes at 7 feet deep and heated to 78°F to 80°F.

I didn’t really like sharing a lane in the small pool because I wanted to practice butterfly, and I was afraid I’d hit my lane partner or splash too much water on other people in the pool, many of whom were taking it easy. I was also feeling a bit hot and was worried that I was overheating. Last week, I wanted to go swimming, but I was too scared to get into the big pool because it was cold and deep. At 1250 yards, I figured that I could probably swim well enough to survive in the big pool and mentally prepared myself to switch pools.

At 1350, I tried to get out, but the air was cold, and it made me feel that I wasn’t ready. I figured I could get to 1500 and then go. If I had gotten into the big pool and felt that it was too cold and scary, I could at least be proud of my even 1500 yards in the small pool. I would still have done well.

Six more laps later, at 1500, I felt great and strong. I was proud of what I had already endured. I got out, took the cold air as it came, and got into the big pool. It was wide open, so I got my own lane at the end, which had stairs to get in and out.

I felt so clean and refreshed in the colder pool that it made me sprint down and back in freestyle and butterfly. I ran out of breath at the end of the butterfly lap, but I did another two laps of freestyle and breaststroke. I figure those four laps were probably what got me my new personal best of 1:10 for 100 yards.

I was tired but excited. I don’t think I’ve swam in an Olympic pool since I competed in middle school. I didn’t fear the pool like I did last week when I was at home trying to decide whether to swim or not. I’ve been trying to swim every Sunday morning, but last week I forgot to make a reservation for the small pool, and it booked up too fast. I decided I was too tired, and the big pool was too scary, so I just didn’t swim. But the cold water felt wonderful. Its cooling effect and my mantra from the snail helped me push through the remaining distance to reached my goal of 2000 yards.

After my swim, I got out, took a shower, and put on my clothes. I looked at my stats from my Garmin watch. It somehow recorded 2025, but I’m sure I swam an even number of laps. I think it got 2025 because on one lap in the small pool, I accidentally flipped and turned before I fully made it to the other side. I was impressed by myself because, a few weeks ago, I could only swim 1275 before I had to call it a day. Today, I did 2025, and I could have done more, but I decided that it was enough. I’m improving, and I feel proud. It doesn’t matter how long it takes or how slowly I go as long as I don’t give up.