Progress Impoverished
Take-aways:
- Progress is good.
- We lead progress impoverished lives.
- Cut out artificial progress and empty accomplishments.
- Replace them with something that advances you towards an important goal.
- Don’t return to the removed activity until you can honestly say you are doing so for reasons other than a progress fix.
Progress Impoverished
Definition: Progress: to develop in a positive way. The notion that things are getting better as time goes on.
Definition: Artificial Progress: Non-vital or less important progress that supplants more important and beneficial progress or leads to the avoidance of real progress. Artificial progress is typically easier, more immediate, less scary, or more concrete than real progress.
Progress is an inherently good thing by definition. The latest cell phone or video game, which will be advertised as a giant leap forward, may or may not be better than what came before, but true progress exists, and it is desirable and attainable.
It is a sad time for progress. Many say that the current generation of children will be the first to have it worse off than their parents in a hundred years. What’s worse, artificial progress, like a toxic non-sugar sweetener, has taken the place of real progress in our lives.
Farmville, Mafia Wars, World of Warcraft, Sudoku, Freecell, Solitaire, Crossword puzzles.
Which one do you use to get your progress fix? Real progress is so terribly absent from the rest of our lives that we turn to these artificial sources to give us a jolt of accomplishment and self-worth. Which one gives that sweet taste of accomplishment that you’re being starved of at work, at home, and in your relationships?
Don’t get me wrong. I like video games, but we must be aware of their impact on us. Are we playing them because we’ve given up on progress in every other sphere of our lives?
Video games aren’t the only substitutes for real progress. Some people clean their house for a sense of progress. Some shop. Some exercise. Some obsess over their lawns.
None of these things are inherently bad. It’s only when they become a substitute for our holistic (mental, emotional, and physical) development that they become problematic. When that happens, our development is arrested and our full potential is locked up.
The distinction between real and artificial progress is ever changing, because the distinction is determined by the individual’s approach. For example: the person who goes to the gym because they are overweight and want to live longer and healthier is engaged in actual progress. The person who goes to the gym because they are avoiding their spouse when they could be attempting to resolve the issue that lead to the fight is engaged in false progress.
Video games could be false progress one day and pure entertainment the next, or even real progress if, for example, they are used to connect with another person.
Better to despair
It is better to despair, suffer pain or anger, to descend emotionally than to cling to the false life raft of artificial progress.
(SPOILER ALERT, but honestly if you haven’t seen Fight Club yet, stop reading this and go watch it.)
Think of the movie Fight Club. The narrator was so wrapped up in his materialistic, almost-complete, but actually vacuous, life that he created an alter ego to drive himself towards rock-bottom. Only from the depths of such suffering could he remake himself.
The solution for you and me is hopefully less extreme than the creation of a violent id-driven alter ego. The first step is to determine if you have an artificial progress addiction and if so, cut it out, cold-turkey. Replace it with something that has the potential to improve your life. You could spend the time reading a self help book instead, or replace time spent on the addiction with something you fear failing at. Take steps to pursue a lifelong goal. If you want to change your job, health, or emotional state, then go after these goals.
When I say, "cut out artificial progress cold-turkey," I don’t necessarily mean cut out the specific activity forever. Remember, it’s the approach to and motivation for the activity that determines whether or not it is artificial progress.
Identifying the problem
How do you know if you have an artificial progress addiction? The only way to answer the question is through introspection. (Though a big hint would be that if you got angry when I suggested that your beloved pastime was a ball and chain arresting your personal development, then you are probably using that pastime as a progress substitute.)
Introspection can’t be taught, but it can be learned. The first step is a desire to understand one’s self. A good second step is a quiet mind, which will be the subject of my next article.
Tips:
Don’t beat yourself up if you break your promise to quit an activity cold turkey. Simply tell yourself, I needed a lift to go on, and renew your commitment to real progress the next day.
If an important project is feeling like work and you’re feeling the lure of a pastime, but don’t want to succumb to artificial progress, here’s a way to determine whether or not you need a break. Prepare your workspace for the important project. Get out all the necessary papers. Open all the apprporiate documents. Then set a timer and work on the important project for five minutes. If at the end of five minutes wou feel like you’re making progress, keep at it. If instead you feel like you were distracted, got nothing done, and wasted time then take a break. You need it.
Cherish the gains you make towards true progress. Savor every little victory. This will make it easier for true progress to supplant the artificial. Think about it this way, once you eat a gourmet sirloin burger, you’ll never want to go back to McDonalds again.
Determining whether or not you have an artificial progress addiction is not so simple asking yourself whether or not you feel guilt. Personally, I have long felt guilty about playing video games, telling myself that I was wasting my time. However, this guilt did not come from an instinctual resistance to addiction, but from my upbringing during which it was drilled into me that video games were a waste of time. It took me a long time to accept that I actually enjoy such games and that is okay.
Leading a progress rich life is not something that is ever complete, but is an ongoing process accomplished through awareness of one’s own motivations.
