Growth as progress, maintaining the status quo as regression.

It is not easy to evaluate "how much one has grown."

Before you know it, the day begins and ends, the weekend arrives, Saturday and Sunday pass, Monday starts, and time flies by in the blink of an eye—a month, a year.

It is no wonder that it is difficult to self-evaluate when you are sprinting through every day right in front of you.

The reason why the growth of infants and toddlers is easy to understand is likely because they can do more things than before. Or, to be precise, perhaps it is because
the fact that "they can do more things" is clearly visible. Like crawling, or reading and writing.

On the other hand, when it comes to the growth of adults, it doesn't really ring a bell.

Even if you achieve results at work, it is difficult to objectively judge whether it is due to your own growth, because the efficiency of the entire operation has improved, or if you were just lucky.

While you might feel "they have grown" at an elementary school graduation ceremony, I don't think anyone would think the same phrase about a boss retiring at the mandatory age. If someone did, it would be inevitable to retort, "How condescending can you be!"

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However, there should still be plenty of experiences where adults can say they "can do more things."

At my part-time job, there is a 71-year-old man (the same age as my father). This person has recently been practicing touch typing on a laptop.

The hurdle for starting to use a computer at this age must be extremely high, but in just a few months, he has become able to type reasonably well.

A few days ago, he printed out a list of MLB team names, their locations, and their home stadium names, and showed it to me with a big smile (inserting a related article here casually).

"Well, I'm still no match for you, Arlon, but it's fun when you can do it."

The smile on his face as he said that was wonderful.

This can undeniably be called growth.

Conversely, if he had done nothing regarding computers, he wouldn't have been able to type a single character, let alone touch type.
Well, that's obvious, since he wouldn't have done anything.

However, doing nothing is by no means a net zero.

The world is moving at a dizzying pace. In this modern age where computers and smartphones are the norm, not being able to handle them is fatal.

Furthermore, as adults get older, both their bodies and brains decline. Since touch typing serves as both finger exercise and mental exercise, it might also play a role in preventing dementia.
However, if you do nothing, you will continue to deteriorate over time. This is surely a self-evident truth.

In other words, doing nothing—maintaining the status quo—is not zero but negative; it is not stagnation, but regression.

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It is a cliché conclusion, but I believe life is a choice between moving forward or moving backward.

The tricky part is that the state of your progress or regression is invisible (hard to visualize). As I mentioned at the beginning, it is very difficult to judge whether you are moving forward or backward.

Therefore, I would like to recommend creating a “List of Good Things Today” as I do.

Originally, the purpose was to maintain mental health, but it should also be useful in terms of visualizing growth.

It can be something very trivial (like “I woke up early” or “I ate something delicious”), just write down things that were good for you.

For someone who is not a morning person, waking up early is a great success, and thinking something is delicious is proof of a rich sensibility.

No matter how small the event, there should be an element of progress in it.

Even if it doesn't look like much at first glance, we are certainly making progress.

By simply not overlooking those small steps forward, people can continue to grow forever and ever.

That is what I believe.