What’s the key to making progress?

A friend asked me the following question on FB the other day. I thought the answer might be useful to others and decided to share it here on LD.

Question: What’s the key to making progress?

I’m not a guru. I don’t have all the answers. I’m just getting better every day, facing my fears, and aligning my course a tiny bit of an angle with my definition of meaning and purpose. Because that’s not easy. It takes courage.

So, my Answer:

I’d say this: there is a path of the least resistance for each one of us. That’s the path where we find meaning. You’ve got to choose that path at all costs and go all the way. You’re gonna face a ton of challenges but what will keep you there is that meaning.

The other thing is to find pleasure in helping others. All around say give, give value, but you have to find pleasure in giving value to others and solving their problems, spending your precious time for solving the problems of others without expecting anything back. That goes against our genes. We’re inherently selfish, we care about our own survival and existence and that’s OK of course to a certain extent. Giving value without expecting anything back takes practice. Lots of practice. And then it becomes addictive. You want it badly. And all of a sudden, just because you’ve provided value genuinely this time people give value back to you. And this is contagious. These people will do the same when interacting with other people.
PS: I’m just learning and getting better. I’ve got a lot of work to do myself. This was just some realisations from my experience especially in the last 5 years since I quit my job in investment banking and went on to set up my business. The way towards mastery takes a whole life. 🙂