Constant And Never-Ending Improvement
Our human journey is not a sprint or a marathon but actually a series of sprints run over the course of a lifetime. Constant and Never-ending Improvement (CANI) is our helper along the way. CANI is the practice of taking continuous action in the present to impact the trajectory of our future. By applying this principle in the key areas of Mind, Body, Spirit, and Shadow we synergistically set ourselves up for big results along an extended time arc.
The best place to start is where you are and keep making improvements from that vantage. Do not be intimidated by learning or the talents of others. Embrace your unique abilities and life’s unfolding experiences. CANI, alongside the application of the mindfulness skill of equanimity makes pushing ourselves beyond our comfort zone less of a struggle. When we encounter inevitable challenges along the way, we can take a gentle approach to win the day.
Applying patience to build up your habits incrementally helps keep your expectations manageable. Progress can be measured in a number of ways such as: intensity, duration, frequency, and results. Intensity is how much effort you put into an activity; duration is how long each session lasts; frequency is how often you do something; and finally, results are what happens with all these factors working together.
Set up personal benchmarks to measure your progress against. Every time you reach a milestone, take time to celebrate your progress on this path—and that feeling will help keep you moving forward when things get tough again. Benchmarks can be tracked using any number of tools—from spreadsheet apps like Excel, to fitness trackers like Fitbit and Apple Watch.
Commit yourself with stickativity to stay with your goals. Keep taking proactive steps to create the changes you want to see in your life. Improvement becomes a lifestyle when you apply CANI to many facets of your life. Optimally, once you're ready to commit to this process, it's for now and the rest of your life.
I’ve personally been applying this principle actively for the last few months in a number of areas such as my exercise, shadow work, and writing. In the past when I pushed myself too, I received good results in the short-term, but I always ended up short-circuiting and stopping once the adrenaline wore off. Now I have a more tactical approach of applying mindfulness techniques, tracking progress, and building habits which is proving more effective.
Get out there and do things. Begin with small habit shifts to snowball into big changes over time that yield huge results. Keep doing it and you will find yourself far ahead of where you were before. Think of this process of Constant and Never-ending Improvement as a call and response. The question is, Can I? The answer is Yes, you Can!