Warning:

This article contains classified information brought to you by me. If the FBI knocks on your door, asking if your read this article, just look stupid and claim you were browsing pictures of polar bears in bath tubs. The FBI will get confused since everybody seems to answer the same and therefore contact CIA; which will state that such pictures can’t be found on internet.

Progression – Do you see it?

An inspiration article

Ever got the feeling of just stopping up. Stuck in reverse, can’t get forward, literally in a ditch with your wheels keep spinning and you ain’t getting nowhere – the occasional feeling of being a dead polar bear in a bath tub? You are not alone, and you never will be. One of the keys to success is keeping track of your progression, the small things that moves you further; to your goal. And to get to a goal without a proper progression is much the same as driving Rally in the middle of Asia blindfolded with a angry and hungry panda as your map reader, with you looking as bamboo your done before you hit the gas.

What is progression?

Progression is everything that moves you forward towards your goal. It’s whats making you better in whatever your trying to get better in. If you ran sixty meters on twelve seconds one week, and then try it again next week and you hit eleven seconds, that single second is your progression. Easy enough, but what do you do if you can’t find what you are “progressing” on?

It’s your mind – for sure.

You’ve probably noticed this before; tracking your own progressions is hard and to often other peoples sees it before you do. I guess it’s the same as trying to track how many ants that’s stealing your food on your holiday picnic – and you realize that trying to count them is impossible due to the constant feeling of hate towards the food stealing creatures and for the worse the hatred is bolted in the fact that their actually steeling your food – therefore giving up. Wow.. That’s really the first rule; don’t give up. However this is easier said than done and requires some thinking first: Why do you want to give up? Is your progression really stalling? I am missing something? If you don’t want to give up then continue reading.  In most cases, the two last questions leads to the answer that you might be looking for.

It’s the small details.

To know if your progression – in whatever you do – is stalling you need to know some facts. Like details from last practice, or the the practice before that. This is a gamble because you don’t know if you find anything positive – surprisingly the same technique for catching seals at north pole; you toss a pile of dead fish near a seal hole and wait. However, you don’t know what animal that comes first; the seal or the hungry polar bear – however in most cases you will find out positive things. The smallest change in the right direction is a progress, be sure to remember this and dig it up one month from now on. Your up for a surprise! Still missing something? Okey, look back half a year – where were you? Where are you know? The gap between them is filled with progress. Which brings me to the second rule; Never forget how much you sucked the first time. No mater what!

If you don’t understand anything of this, don’t get upset. Just continue reading.

In depth

There is load of ways to spot your progression and it depends on your goal. However there are a few of them which are quite common: Weight, length, time and technique are the most common ones.
For handstand people Time and Technique might be the most common ones, however length and weight is used by more advanced handstand companions. How far did you jump on your hands and how many times did you manage to do a full handstand press-up? Well used

Here are some examples:

Weight Training:
increasing weight, better technique in different exercises, more sets? more sets with same load? New exercises, different angles, new approach?

Driving a car:
Less near-death experiences, keeping both hands on steering wheel for more than the split second you drive past the police? Smoother cornering or less near accidents on the parallel parking!

Skiing:
Less falls, larger jumps, better time, smoother corners, better technique overall

Surfing:
Mastering bigger waves, better foot positioning, better paddle, spotting that epic wave perhaps?

Football:
0.5 second faster across the field, in average 1 more scores! Actually hitting the ball/goal

Hunting polar bears:
Ending up with non of your friends dead.

Getting Ladies:
Less punches in the face, less time fighting, last longer in bed?

Getting boys:
Ee-hem. I’m a male, I really can’t answer this question as I lack certain knowledge on the field. Literally.

Repeating what I’ve said

What I’m really trying to say here is that there is so much you can to look for to keep track of your progress, the tiniest second, the smallest change in technique, that little feeling, merely the three extra centimeters , the looks, E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.  Try to find your progression each and every time you train to keep progress of it, notice it and feel it. Be proud of it!  And for the third rule: every now and then you should summarize and reset. Summarize your progress look at all the improvements, stack them up and align them with the first time you started. You did suck back then? – a rhetorical question indeed. Then reset and look for new progressions to track- I promise you, new doors have opened giving you new opportunities, and it’s your task to find them. The feeling of being proud will come faster than a polar bear realizing his luck while resting at a sunny beach with a pile of dead seals and a Pina-Colada drink in his paw, and when he finally thinks of his incredibly luck of not being shot traveling there or dying from the extreme heat polar bears usually don’t withstand at all, he gets real proud: much faster than you’d imagine.

And for your notice.
You really can’t find pictures of polar bears in bath tubs, not even on the great internet.