Decreasing marginal returns

That’s what you get when you work on a natural progression. Don’t get me wrong. I believe in letting things develop naturally. But natural development can only take you so far. The example I often use is that of strength training for athletes. Any converts of P90X will understand. If an athlete begins a strength training program, he or she will see fairly dramatic improvements at the onset. But if the athlete stays on the same program, the magnitude of the improvements will become gradually smaller. Sooner or later, the athlete will plateau and see very little improvement, regardless of how much time is invested in training. That’s because the muscles become familiar with the movements and feel less challenged each time. They figure, “I’ve seen this before, I know what to expect,” and don’t work as hard. They grow comfortable. And growth slows to a crawl, if not a complete stop. The only way to address this is to change things up. Challenge the muscles with new movements and force them to become uncomfortable, force them to learn new things.

It’s like that with us too. If we allow ourselves to become comfortable, the pace of our personal growth slows down considerably. We go through the same motions over and over again. Activities become mindless. Weeks and months fly by, and with them, our lives. We look around and wonder “Wow, where did all that time go?”