Measuring Progress in the Right Places

As humans, we are highly visual creatures. This has been an essential part of our evolution as a species, but in modern hands it has become an exploited weakness. 

The powerful eyesight that helped us survive in prehistoric times is now taken advantage of. Our vision is constantly bombarded with advertisements, entertainment, and the best moments of other people's lives--all competing to win our attention.

What our vision is being used for nowadays is no longer about survival, it's about perceiving value--value that is often distorted by AI, editing, marketing, and other misleading practices. Authenticity has fallen out of fashion and being "normal" has become an offensive condition.

Are we as good looking as them? No.

Are we as successful as them? No.

Is there something we can buy to fix that? 

Yes.

We can buy anything we don't have, with money we don't have, to visually communicate that we hare successful and desirable. The visual landscape of our society has turned value into something that you have to see to believe, and if you don't have something to show off? You're worthless.

Visual cues of progress deliver the greatest dopamine hit. Whether it's looking slimmer on a weight loss plan or seeing improvement in drawing skills after taking an art class, visual progress is what we've grown to value the most. If you see progress, you're most likely to feel motivated to keep going. 

Visual progress is exhilarating, but it can lead to a dangerous erosion of our intrinsic value if it becomes the only metric we rely on. What happens if we're not seeing the results we want? 

It's not healthy to measure progress only by visual achievements, but this becomes the natural course for our brains to take when the world has been designed for us to equate value to what's visible.

There are so many other ways to measure progress beyond what can be seen. In fact, progress that is invisible to the eye is often the most powerful. 

What's communicated beyond what is seen is far more valuable than appearances alone. There's self-growth, gained experiences, acquired wisdom, and so many other ways we can mark our progress as we chase our dreams--so much more to value than what is external.

For years I focused on external metrics as benchmarks of progress toward my dreams: views, likes, bookings, follows--nothing I could actually control.

So, I felt out of control. It felt like an itch inside my soul that I couldn't scratch, and the only way I thought I could relieve it was to fix myself from the outside in. Maybe I did need to be prettier, maybe I didn't look successful enough. Surely there's something I can buy to fix this. 

Let me spare you the time, money, and heartache: there isn't. There's nothing you can buy that will help you feel in control of your success if you're measuring it through external, visual progress alone. 

If you want to feel in control, if you want to feel worthy, if you want to feel at peace, you have to learn to value the invisible--the internal progress. 

Internal progress values who you are and who you're becoming over what you look like. It allows you to define your self-worth on your own terms, not the world's.

It takes time to rewire your brain in this way. It won't be easy, but it is essential for sustainability and consistently chasing your dreams. You won't give up on yourself if you're the one defining your value.

It's a big world out there, there's a lot to see. Too much to see. Too much that begs us to value what's on the outside--the appearance of beauty, success, and happiness. Too much that fuels comparison and makes us feel unworthy.

It's a big world out there, but it's built to keep us small. If we allow it to control the way we measure progress--the way we value ourselves--through external validation and appearances, we will never recognize the progress that actually help us create something bigger for ourselves. 

We're all born with a dream, something our soul desires to accomplish in this life. We can't fulfill that if we give the world power over us. 

Our soul is not comprehendible to the eyes of this world. Our soul is invisible, so focus on the invisible progress--the internal progress, the progress only you get to define. That's the key to building real self-worth, and from there, anything is possible.