Celebrating Progress

Thank God that in the past one and half week I have been feeling positive. There are still failures here and there. But I managed to focus on what is good enough and do things one step at a time.

The past one week acts as if the last four months were already something that is easy to forget. This is because recently there is often something I am excited with in each day. So the feeling is much different. It is as if I feel very energetic and then do a lot of things and then feel tired. It is different from the feeling of not knowing what to do and with big cloud pressing on my mind.

This shows that nothing is impossible with God. I often said when I am depressed that why God does not immediately help. The answer is that God makes everything beautiful in His time. When it is His time, He can do it, He can make drastic change. But when it is not the time, things may not change regardless of our efforts and it is fine. Just like the story of a kid trying to move the big rock. The rock may not move but the muscles have changed to be stronger.

So, let’s celebrate the progress. Celebrate God’s goodness. Capture this excited feeling so that next time when I am down, I don’t act as if there is no hope. So that I am committed to believing that there is hope in God, we can recover, it is just a matter of when.

Secondly, let’s celebrate the progress by slowing down instead of keep looking for a more ambitious target.

For example on data analytics, I have given up on it after my conference when I was so ashamed on how weak my skills were. Now that I am more excited, I am prone to make unrealistic target. For example, yesterday I attended a presentation from intern who used tensor flow. Then I wanted to learn about tensor flow. My best friend in office gave me the link. Then I already want to be able to understand it within a week. Something that is very ambitious. Well maybe that’s my method to make me more motivated. But avoid making promises to people. It is better to work in silence. Test out my commitment and excitement first. Work on something, prototype it, test it, before sharing with others or making a commitment to do it.

Remember, progress in feeling may not translate in progress of skills and performance. I have experienced before where I am very positive but at the end little difference in terms of my work output or technical skills. So, let’s focus on small improvement, focus on work, have enough rest, do not spend all the efforts as if no other things to do in the future.

Remember to practice what I have learned before instead of abandoning them and try learning something new. And since I often make mistakes based on my feeling, slow down and pray, ask which one God wants me to do, in each step, ask Him what is good enough, and ask Him to help me from the pride temptation and to focus and rejoice in Him in each step.