The ‘Influencers’ Are Wrong – You Must NOT Try to Be Better Each Day
Yes, you read the title of this essay correctly. I am going to tell you something you may not agree with at first, but will make sense if you hear me out. The motivational speakers, memes, and know-it-all influencers who tell you that you must try to get better each day are flat out wrong.
Not only are they wrong, they’re loud and wrong. A day doesn’t go by without “influencers” bombarding social media full of quotes and videos guilting everyone into thinking that if they don’t get 1% better each day they’re failing.
The truth is the process of getting better is not a process of daily progress. That’s right. Without reservation, I can tell you that it’s a fact that daily progress is not part of the process of getting better.
The process of getting better is a process of breaking muscle fibers down so you can build those fibers back stronger. The muscle fibers I’m talking about are both mental and physical.
To put it differently, if you want to get better at anything, you must push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Moreover, when you go beyond your comfort zone you will experience pain. Subsequently, you will need time to recover before you can go through the process again to push even further. If you don’t take this time to recover, you’re putting your health at risk.
Therefore, if you’re following the process of getting better correctly, then tomorrow you will not be better. Tomorrow you will be mentally and physically exhausted and will be worse off than you were yesterday. However, through the process of recovery you will get better. This means that it will take a few days before you get better.
Simply stated, advice to try to be better every day is unhealthy advice that will lead to burnout. Instead, focus on the process of:
- Pushing yourself to your limit.
- Taking time to step back for rest and recovery.
- Pushing yourself to break your limits.
- Taking time to step back for rest and recovery.
- Repeat.