The Japanese talk about Kaizen. It’s a thinking linked to continuous Improvement that sees small, daily improvements as a source of success.

James Clear wrote “Atomic Habits” to help people implement the 1% idea, suggesting that when people become 1% better every day, eventually, a huge change awaits them.

Tim Ferriss applies a “no hurry, no pause” philosophy to his undertakings. For him, efficiency results from the steady effort of doing one step after the other.

In one of his Monday Motivation letters Arnold Schwarzenegger questions “how people overestimate what they can accomplish in the short-term and underestimate what they can accomplish in the long-term.” Aking his own journey as a source of inspiration, Schwarzenegger suggests that a vision is essential to be able to continue, whenever there is a desire to give up. To him, what we see clearly helps us continue despite the setbacks.

What Schwarzenegger also adds, is that to beat all odds is based on being willing to engage in one’s vision not for 30 days, for a year, but for life.

The aspect that is being implicitly said, but usually not explicitly, is that to implement any of the above approaches, there is one thing they all have in common: None of them aim to reach a specific target. Whatever milestones the journey might include, they are one of the many steps on the journey. All of them may have a purpose, or a reason why one does the effort one does. It’s a purpose that links with the moment, that is the frustration and the satisfaction it can provide.

There is no focus on what is next. What’s next is taken care of by the process.