Let’s get better one day at a time

From my point of view 2025 is set up to be another shitty year – on a large / global scale. But that doesn’t mean it will be a shitty year on a level that I have some control over.

I can get better one day at a time, one step at a time. One of my favorite wood workers always says, just be better today than you were yesterday. Another wood worker’s motto is to just do it! Trust me, in German it’s not an ad slogan.

When you combine those two, it means don’t over-plan it, rely on your experience and learn. Learn from failure, learn from success. I stay in wood working terms. When you hand-cut a dovetail you will have lots of failure. Some that you can repair, some that you can not. You will also have success. Many emphasize the aspect to learn from failure. Yes, true, in failures there is a lot of potential to learn and improve. But also in success there is potential to learn. Small habits, structures, routines that you did right. What was it that you did right that lead to success. Just because you did them right this time, doesn’t mean you will make them right the next time.

One of my former team leads was big into Japanese martial arts. And Shu-Ha-Ri was her motto. Shu: Learn the rules. Follow the rules, so that you can get to the result. The rules protect you. Ha: Remove the rules. You have achieved a natural flow. You understood why the rules are there. It is time to bend and break the rules. As you have achieved the Shu, you can do so in a safe and controlled way. Ri: Be the rule. You can build new rules for others to follow. You have reached the next level.

Whatever you do, try to be better than yesterday. Just a bit. You can not become perfect over night. It’s all about small changes, small improvements. One tiny step at a time. And you don’t need to reach Ri for everything that you do. Reaching a solid state of Shu is often more valuable.

Look at IT examples. A program is not perfect from the start. Because at the beginning, there is nothing. A program gets better one change at a time. Once it does what it needs to do, you can make it even better.

In nature, the stone gets hollowed out one drop at a time. A species improves generation by generation. Some things go faster, some take time. People don’t have time. Everything needs to happen now. Embrace time, embrace advancement, embrace being better today than you were yesterday. You don’t need to compete with others to be better as them in everything that you do. Be better than yourself, is already a lot to achieve.

I am not setting any new year’s resolutions. I know I have no discipline to follow them. So I just continue to try to get better. One blog post at a time, one test case at a time, one code change at a time, one cut into the wood at a time, one stitch at a time, one meal at a time, one bike maintenance at a time.

I try to be more in the present and focus on one thing at a time. I’m usually jumping between 3+ topics at the same time. And as we know, multi-tasking is the best way to get nothing done. Next week I will write about embracing the process.

Have a great 2025! Stay healthy! And become better, one step at a time.