“To not improve is to deteriorate”

“There’s no neutrality, you either improve or you deteriorate”

No it’s not so simple

 

When you’re going from points A to B — and point B is your goal,

then getting closer to point B is considered an “improvement”

and getting further away from point B is considered a “deterioration”,

(and of course not moving in any direction is neutral

 

now, let’s consider,

what if someone took point B — and brought it to you?

What if someone took ROME — and brought it to you?

Would that mean you made it?

Is this an improvement?

Oh and what if you tried to get to point B — but someone took the point B away from you?

Is that a deterioration?

 

The problem with our view of success, or improvement, or failure — is that it’s poorly defined.

You think you’re playing the game in which you’re the only moving object — and point A stays where point A is, and point B stays where point B is.

But you’re not playing such game.

You’re playing a game where point A moves and point B moves, and anything goes

But you pretend you’re playing the fair game.

 

And by “unfair” I mean in unfair in both ways.

Sometimes you get lucky.

Sometimes you get unlucky.

NEITHER is “fair”.

And that’s the game you play.

The game in which your success, your “improvement” — doesn’t solely depend on you — but on million other contingencies.

And when you improve — you take credit for it.

And when you fail — you blame others.

Lovely game.

 

Except it’s not a lovely game.

Because eventually you forget the fact that YOU YOURSELF are ACTUALLY the MOVING ELEMENT,

Yes you say it’s you whose moving and the world is not moving,

Yes you say that it’s you whose in charge, you whose in control,

But actually it’s you whose not moving — and the world is moving.

And as long as it goes your way — you take all the credit

And when it doesn’t — you blame the world, or die.

Either way, eventually you lose.

 

The REAL game, and indeed the FAIR GAME — is when you’re the only point moving.

But to play that game — you must first find it.

Of course when you believe you’re playing that game — and you’re not — then you can’t find it

You must realise you’re playing a different game. A game of many moving variables

THEN find the TRUE game in which you are the only variable.

 

Once that is understood — it’s actually quite simple to find that game.

It’s the game where SUCCESS is setting goals dependent SOLELY ON YOU.

Game where success is REALISING those goals.

Game where there’s nothing and no one else to blame. Not just in theory — but literally.

Game where success is to keep your word

 

This is the game to play

Because it’s the only REAL game

Only game in which you truly ARE responsible for your victory.

 

And once you play that game — something interesting happens to every other game.

You realise that it’s ABSOLUTELY possible to not only NOT improve — but to deteriorate.

That NOT WINNING is not the only losing option.

 

This may sound obvious, but we’re actually blind to it.

We always like to assume that our situation, our position — is the GROUND 0.

And that there’s nowhere below to go.

And we always only ever look up — and it seems such a long way to the top of the mountain. Clearly we must be at the bottom.

All the climbing that we did — it’s STILL utterly dwarfed by the peak of the mountain. We don’t even notice it. It’s like we’re at the bottom.

Except it’s nonsense.

You’re not at the bottom.

But you very well might be.

The game you play — the result is not either this place — or the top

The game you actually play — the result may be the true bottom. Far below where you are. Somewhere in fucking hell, perhaps.

Your situation may not only NOT improve — but get much, much worse.

 

You’re blind to it because, again, you BELIEVE everything you were given is NORMAL, is DESERVED, is something you’re ENTITLED to.

Again: you’re playing the game where you’re NOT the single variable — therefore you are never truly entitled to shit.

But you believe you’re playing the game in which you’re the single variable — therefore you delude yourself that you’re entitled to it all.

And that there’s no deterioration.

Only improvement.

Or that ultimately it will all work out. That your failure is somehow actually a success.

 

There’s both improvement and deterioration.

And when you start playing the true game in which you can truly win — you begin to see that, in the world, where there’s so many variables:

-sometimes to improve is to win — and to deteriorate is do lose

-sometimes to improve is nothing, and to NOT improve is to lose

-sometimes to NOT deteriorate is to win

-and sometimes to NOT deteriorate horribly is to win

-and sometimes to NOT WIN BIG is to lose

All of those options can happen.

Because there are many variables.

 

Therefore

I encourage you right now,

Let go of ALL IDEAS you have about “success”, and “improvement”, and all the fucking rest of it.

Because it’s all nonsense.

And eventually you’ll ask for your reward — and will get PUNISHED instead.

The disappointment is imminent .

The FAILURE is imminent.

And it’s ok to fail

But you’ll fail — and gain nothing for it. It will be in vain.

You won’t even gain a lesson from that failure.

Because you won’t even understand why you failed.

Not unless you realise that this was a game of many variables.

Game in which you DID NOT HAVE CONTROL.

Game in which the reason you failed may not be clear at all.

Game in which your wins were not yours — and NOT even your failures.

Game in which you never win.

You don’t win when you win — because it’s not your win.

You don’t win (the valuable lesson) when you lose either — because it’s not even your loss, not even your lesson.

It was all just a dream.

 

The real game is you vs you

It’s you vs your ACTIONS

ONLY THAT IS REAL

And it’s as real as consistent you are with it

As all in this world — our observations make our theories only more probable, never truly certain.

So your ACTIONS are only as real as consistently you manage to execute them.

Of course you have more observations of conducting a small action and observing it’s consistent effect.

Therefore it’s SMALL ACTIONS INDEED which are the BUILDING BLOCKS.

Therefore it’s SMALL ACTIONS INDEED which are the PIECES YOU MOVE in this game

 

THIS is the real game

It’s actions you know you can take

Then it’s the taking of those actions

And it’s the results you predicted

And large successes ONLY follow from SMALL successes. Those are the building blocks

Small success is making a small prediction, planning a small action — and executing

THAT is real

Then great success is but a sequence of such tractable, small successes, small steps.

 

Finally

It’s ok to get lucky

In fact — you should get lucky. As lucky as you can.

I even encourage you to be grateful IN ADVANCE of having gotten lucky, having been blessed.

In truth, I believe you already are lucky. By the very virtue of being alive.

EVERYONE whose alive is LUCKY. For it’s the gift of OPPORTUNITY. Opportunity to DO something.

Please do get lucky.

Just understand that the gifts you receive from god are separate from the actions you vow to take.

The blessings you receive are an extra.

They are lovely. Being blessed is lovely. Getting lucky is lovely.

But it’s NOT a game you play.

It’s NOT a game you control.

Gifts of grace deserve only your gratitude, and no credit whatsoever, and no pride whatsoever, and no attachment whatsoever.

What does deserve your pride and your commitment and your utmost WILL and POWER — is WHAT YOU DO EVERY DAY.

THAT is the game you DO control.

This is the game to play.

 

So the world and your outward situation can get better, or not better, or WORSE.

Let’s stop deluding ourselves that it will never get worse.

But

None of it matters,

Because it’s not the game which matters

The game which matters is what you DECIDE TO DO, EVERY SINGLE DAY.