Quotes About Progress

I've long seen failure as a tool, not an outcome.

The Knowledge Formula: The More You Know, the More You Can Know

How did people steal before computers? - Dogbert

This was my first exposure to the idea that one should have a system instead of a goal. The system was to continually look for better options.

Goal-oriented people exist in a state of continuous presuccess failure at best, and permanent failure at worst if things never work out. Systems people succeed every time they apply their systems, in the sense that they did what they intended to do. The goals people are fighting the feeling of discouragement at each turn. The systems people are feeling good every time they apply their system.

The system-versus-goals model can be applied to most human endeavors. In the world of dieting, losing twenty pounds is a goal, but eating right is a system. In the exercise realm, running a marathon in under four hours is a goal, but exercising daily is a system. In business, making a million dollars is a goal, but being a serial entrepreneur is a system.

failure is your friend. It is the raw material of success.

Happiness has more to do with where you're heading than where you are.

Normal people believe that, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain't broke, it doesn't have enough features yet.

Success cures most types of "mistakes" you made or got criticized for during the process.

Systems have no deadlines, and on any given day you probably can't tell if they're moving you in the right direction

Your skills will increase with experience, which is the more fun cousin of practice. Practice involves putting your consciousness in suspended animation. Practicing is not living. But when you build your skills through an ever-changing sequence of experiences, you're alive.

long seen failure as a tool, not an outcome.

And always remember that failure is your friend. It is the raw material of success. Invite it in. Learn from it. And don't let it leave until you pick its pocket. That's a system.

Kanye's message was that focusing on the past creates a sort of mental prison that limits your options. In the simplest form, if a white male in America has ten ways to succeed and an African-American only has eight, it isn't productive to focus on the difference. It is more productive to pick a path to success and take it.

Humans will always think in terms of goals. Our brains are wired that way. But goals make sense only if you also have a system that moves you in the right direction.

If you achieve your goal, you celebrate and feel terrific, but only until you realize you just lost the thing that gave you purpose and direction. Your options are to feel empty and useless, perhaps enjoying the spoils of your success until they bore you, or set new goals and reenter the cycle of permanent presuccess failure.

The directional nature of happiness is one reason it's a good idea to have a sport or hobby that leaves you plenty of room to improve every year. Tennis

Persistent negativity is a harsh mental prison. Humans need optimism and hope to fuel progress. If all you see is the negative, while those around you seem to be experiencing optimism, that's a signal you might be in a mental prison.

Success isn't magic; it's generally the product of picking a good system and following it until luck finds you.

My failure taught me to seek opportunities in which I had an advantage.

goal is a specific objective that you either achieve or don't sometime in the future. A system is something you do on a regular basis that increases your odds of happiness in the long run.

Put yourself in potentially embarrassing situations on a regular basis just to maintain practice. If you get embarrassed as planned, watch how one year later you are still alive.

Things that will someday work out well start out well. Things that will never work start out bad and stay that way.