Visible Progress

I have recently come to realize how important visible progress can be as a source of motivation.  That idea can be applied to a wide spectrum of possible changes.  In my case, the most obvious would be my house renovation project.  The first two months were very impressive in that regard, with major things happening every day.  The longer I have continued to work on it, the slower progress has become.  Part of that is because I spend less time on it, and have less help, so naturally less work is actually getting done.  But it is more due to the fact that the tasks I am working on are more cosmetic and meticulous, finishing little time consuming details.  So I can work hard all day, and look back at very little to show for my time.  But someone who comes over once a week will see changes, because they aren't seeing the individual gradations in the meantime.

It has been a lot less motivating to work on things the last couple of weeks, due to the lack of visible changes, which kind of makes me want to move on to another stage of the project.  But I know I need to finish up the final details on the things I have already started, instead of making a new mess somewhere else.  It would be more motivating, but there are other potential sources of motivation that I need to learn to tap into more effectively.

The importance of visible progress can be applied to other things as well.  For me the most obvious one in the immediate sense is the idea of getting married.  Whether I have made any progress in that regard recently is debatable, but there have clearly been some setbacks.  Longer term, the idea of having kids is a great example of this.  Birth is a visible change, and I am sure early on there are many changes, but they are spaced out by long nights of crying and dirty diapers.  As children get older, the growth usually slows, which makes it less visible when viewed in daily gradations, which is why threshold accomplishments are celebrated, like birthdays, first day of school, graduation, etc.  It is those times that we step back and realize how much has changed over a longer period of time.

Our relationship with God can be the same way.  For many people, their initial conversion is accompanied by big changes in their hearts and minds.  These changes can have a dramatic impact on their outward choices and actions, and noticed by both themselves and others.  But fast forward a few months, and that becomes the new "norm."  It is amazing how fast people can adapt to changes, both good and bad.  That is one of the reasons it can be so hard to see progress over a longer period of time.  But things obviously won't be perfect, no matter how much better the new norm is.  So that can cause one to question: "Am I doing enough?  Was that really change?" etc.  So we should be able to find motivation outside of visible progress, because it won't always be there, and that is okay.  We are always growing in one way or another, and many of those changes aren't easily outwardly visible to others, and too gradual for us to be fully conscious of either.  One of the reasons I have this blog is so that I can look at how my thoughts and beliefs on things change over a long period of time.  That is one of the reasons it is so interesting to go back and read old posts, to see how much I have changed and grown since I wrote them.  In the long run, the invisible is usually more valuable than the visible.