Are You Improving?

You're not improving if you're only addressing the symptoms and not drilling down to find the root cause. Knowing the root cause and doing nothing about it, because you're too busy fighting the symptoms, leads to no improvement either.

You're not improving if you never learn from your mistakes. Even if you do learn, improvement means doing something different the next time around. Learning the lesson, but repeating the mistake, still leads to no improvement.

You're not improving if you keep doing the same thing, but hoping for a different result. If you want something you've never had, you have to do something you've never done. Talking or thinking about it, without taking action, leads to no improvement either.

You're not improving if you only stay in your comfort zone. Change, even for the better, is painful. Only wanting to change is not enough; you have to go through the pain and come out the other side to see the change happening.

Lastly, you're not improving if you hurt others in the process. Love is not a finite resource; there's enough for everyone to go around. If you need to destroy someone or something to get to a better place, find another way. Improvement is not the place you want to get to; it's the path — and once you start walking that path, there is no end. If you stop walking because you get tired or you think you've reached perfection, life will pass you by.