How to Make Progress
What I'm doing to save a dream.
When we talk about climate change, we often talk about its scary consequences if little or nothing is done. But, doing this alone easily turns the topic into a source of fear.
Yes, fear.
As climate scientist, Katharine Hayhoe said in her TED talk,
Fear is designed to help us run away from the bear (or just run faster than the person beside us).
Previously, I talked about my wish to help in building a sustainable future, but
it doesn’t mean much to me yet, and
there is no immediate consequence in not achieving it.
Hence, the next possible option is to see it as my responsibility as a human being. Isn’t it?
Well…
🛤️ A dream can make you blind
Last September, it suddenly dawned on me that the path I’d been taking — since the 2019 “I read the newspaper” event — was wrong.
I thought because I had a goal — a “big, meaningful and noble” one — I’d definitely do my best to reach it. I thought my lack of progress was just a mere obstacle on my path, and I could overcome it if I kept trying.
But, soon, I realized I’d been blinded by the wonderfulness of this “big, meaningful and noble” dream. And it turned me away from the elephant in the room 👇
Why did I keep running away?
Looking back, it wasn’t simply a lack of discipline.
It was a lack of joy.
Having a goal is awesome.
It tells you where to go and what to work on. But, at the same time, it also tells you what not to do. When you desperately want a dream to come true, you tend to focus too much on it and ignore everything else.
With this tunnel vision, you’re walking without minding where your feet (present) are, so that’s probably why you keep falling. When the road to success becomes a pain in the ass, waste-man activities like binging on Netflix turn more exciting.
In short,
Lack of joy here => look for it somewhere else
Then, what should I do?
❤️🔥 Let your goal be a byproduct of doing what you love
When I published my first blog post (you can't find it now) in late 2020, I asked,
Why do this when the future is fading slowly?
Shouldn’t I use all my time and energy to reach my goal?
I forgot what I wrote, but I was certain of one thing — I was doing what I love, i.e., writing.
Whether I like it or not, this is the privilege I’ve been given. And yes, there are people suffering from the effects of climate change that take this privilege from them. But,
Doing what you love doesn’t have to mean you’re turning a blind eye to the world.
In fact, you don’t have to be a scientist or a politician to build a sustainable future, if you don't want to and have the freedom to choose not to.
Honestly,
You don’t even have to fix climate change alone, you can help to fix it instead.
Love journalism? Be the journalist who covers this topic. Wanna be a YouTuber? Use your power as an influencer to influence your audience like what Mr Beast and Mark Rober did.
Whatever it is, it’s better to enjoy your journey that helps the world in your own way. Anything is better than making little to no progress doing something you hate.
While you may not be the one directly involved, you can at least bring the world’s attention to this crisis. Incidentally, the title of Katharine’s TED Talk was,
The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it.
Even when doing what you love, spreading the word is still possible. Whether it’s by speech or by examples, you have the ability to let your family, friends and community know that the house is burning.
And even if the fire seems pretty far away, it’ll get here soon.
And even if we’re probably doomed, there is still hope — one that’s greater by doing what you love than making little progress on a noble-yet-joyless path to the dream.
💘 What if you can’t do what you love?
If you could freely pick the path to walk on, go the flying flamingo 🦩 ahead. But, not everyone has the freedom to do so. Also,
Even the work you enjoy doing may not be 100% enjoyable all the time.
You may hate parts of the process. You may dislike the university course structure. Although I love writing, sometimes I just didn’t feel like it but got deep into the flow after I began.
While it’s possible to use productivity hacks to get going, there’s a need for a fundamental belief to back them up. John C. Parkin’s F**k It: Do What You Love probably has the answer.
Just as the most lethal viruses are often a simple and small mutation of the virus gene, it’s a simple and small change in our Do What You Love virus that makes it unstoppable — Love What You Do.
—John C. Parkin, F**k It: Do What You Love
When I studied Further Math in A-Levels, I dreaded the subject. It brought me fear and inferiority that I ended up hating it (and went on to apply for Chemistry at UCAS *cough*). I even dropped A2 after messing up the AS papers (but I somehow got 89% #yay).
Hatred, contrary to love, makes you focus on the faults and blind to the benefits.
After graduating, I tried learning A2-Level Further Math myself, and wow — I don’t hate it as much as I thought. In fact, math became my favorite module out of all I have done in university so far.
Maybe it’s not the subject, but the teacher.
Maybe it’s just your learning method.
Whatever it is, remove the biased lens, and look for the joy.
🏡 Take home
If you have a goal, but
it doesn’t mean much to you yet,
there is no immediate consequence in not achieving it, and
it feels more like a stressful and scary responsibility,
then try to
do what you love,
love what you do, and
let the goal be a byproduct of this enjoyable work.
That marks the end of the two-story "Progress" series. Not gonna lie. The approach is just a fundamental shift in perspective, and it won’t work well by itself just like how productivity hacks aren’t self-sustainable.
But, although this new path you’ll be walking on isn’t obstacle-free, you’re more likely to stay on and enjoy the journey.
Good luck!
—Thomas