Is "Up only" healthy to maintain / pursue?

[Jenkins]

So I'm into self development for quite some time. I've stumbled across things which are effective, however I've also noticed that some just give you weird anxiety when unreachable.

Recently I've heard about excellent standards / up only.

Basically if you do 5 sales normally, and then one day 500, you should be alarmed the days after for not doing 500 at least again, and work harder.

I believe this might get me in an unhealthy space and might be foolish to pursue.

What you think about this?

Also, if you managed to perform well in your areas of life, what rea better guidelines you use for yourself?

[aurum]

1 hour ago, Jenkins said:

Recently I've heard about excellent standards / up only.

This sounds like stage Orange nonsense.

In the very long-term, yes you should strive to be constantly moving up. And the goods news is that is always the case, even if it takes a couple lifetimes.

In the short run though, all kinds of negative things can happen. You will have bad days. Things will not go as planned. You will fail and lose. And none of that is a mistake.

You were never supposed to constantly be moving up. You were never supposed to always win or succeed.

Such an assumption that life is supposed to be that way is already a major error. But stage Orange tends to be blind to this since it’s so focused on achievement. 

[Jenkins]

@aurum thanks.

And how could one be focused on being "constantly up" on the long term?

[Carl-Richard]

Neurosis central.

[Nilsi]

6 hours ago, Jenkins said:

So I'm into self development for quite some time. I've stumbled across things which are effective, however I've also noticed that some just give you weird anxiety when unreachable.

Recently I've heard about excellent standards / up only.

Basically if you do 5 sales normally, and then one day 500, you should be alarmed the days after for not doing 500 at least again, and work harder.

I believe this might get me in an unhealthy space and might be foolish to pursue.

What you think about this?

Also, if you managed to perform well in your areas of life, what rea better guidelines you use for yourself?

You are developing a skill, not a result.

You can get progressively better (some lines of development resemble a step-function more than a linear one; meaning, you have breakthroughs and plateaus -- but it's both simultaneously, as is the case in evolution itself) at selling, but you can't progressively sell more.

A musician might not compose a song in months, but he can still be involved in a creative process that will level up his skills - until he has a new breakthrough and creates his best work yet (and wouldn't it be silly, if the musician was beating himself up the following day for not dishing out an even greater work of art?) He can also practice a song on the piano and get better everyday. What he can't do is compose 2 songs today, 3 tomorrow and 5 the day after that.

Edited February 4, 2023 by Nilsi

[aurum]

6 hours ago, Jenkins said:

@aurum thanks.

And how could one be focused on being "constantly up" on the long term?

Well it just depends on your time frame. In the longest possible time frame, it’s literally impossible not to be constantly going up. You could not fail if you tried. So don’t worry about it.

More practically speaking, just do the best you can. Keep studying and improving your skills. Be open to feedback. When you fail, that becomes an opportunity to get better by seeing what you did wrong. Always keep an eye open for this and how things could be improved.