Individual human progress is a funny thing.
As we get better at things and our time in earth increases, our timeline for being terrible at those same things comes closer.
Walking to a two year old is difficult.
Walking for a six year old?
You’re likely a lot better by then - sure you’ll mostly be pretty ok at walking but from time to time you screw up.
Over time your ability to not walk into things or trip on random shit likely will improve.
Until it doesn’t.
After an injury or illness, walking gets more difficult.
As we recover from injury, we’re not so much making progress as we are improving.
Progress brings us closer to being like my ninety three year old nanny.
She’s a pretty experienced walker.
But these days? She’s no longer improving.
Progress for her isn’t about her ability to walk increasing, it’s about her ability to walk decreasing.
So, next time you think about ‘progress’, is this ‘progress’ an improvement or something else.
A lot of people confuse progress with improvement.
And that is the kind of folly worth falling down over.
That is unless the fall ends up with a broken hip.
Stay foolish my friends and beware of progress masquerading as improvement.