Moving towards better

 Most people believe that the way to get ahead, to become better, is to make gradual, continuous, incremental improvements.

The typical career would be to start in a position and move up the ladder, either in the same company or through new jobs/positions in other companies.

For others is just working harder and getting those raises. Maybe it's just a cost of living increase. Maybe it's 5 or 7 percent. Doesn't sound too bad.

How does a 2.3% cost of living and merit increase that total to $2,400 sound? For some, it'd be great. Others it's nothing. That works out to an additional $200 each month. Of course all the taxes get taken out before you see any of it. 

But, before taxes, that's an extra $46 each week (assuming you get paid for 52 weeks, including all leave time). And that works out to just over an extra $1 per hour for a 40-hour work week.

Your perspective really determines how you see this. Some people would be ecstatic for a $1/hour raise. 

The question is, is this really better?

It's the commonly accepted way to become better, to improve ones financial situation. If you're financially ambitious and have fiscal discipline, maybe you'll invest that extra money to help your future retirement.

Maybe with your hard work you'll get a promotion, or a new job, and net an additional 20% income with the change. Some would see this as a huge change, maybe even as a "quantum leap". But is it really?

This is the conventional approach. We could certainly agree that the promotion or new job would be moving up to another level, but it's not an "explosive jump". It's the next logical step in what society views as systematic improvement, moving up, and achieving the next rung in the ladder.

And, yes, it is a little better.

But, if you believe this is as good as you can be, you're selling yourself short.

All of us are capable of breakthroughs, of higher performance without necessarily working harder (or longer). These happen when we skip levels.

Here are two limitations (there are others, but these are probably the biggest).

First, we measure the potential for our future success based on our present situation, which is the result of our past. The truth is, the future is not dependent on the past. Our past does not dictate our future unless we allow it to. This means we can make new choices and decisions, and take new action. You cannot expect different results by doing the same thing.

Second, our belief systems restrict us. We need to let go of what we believe is possible, because, for most of us, our beliefs are limited by our experiences, our mindset, and what others tell us. These belief systems, our paradigms, want to help us feel "safe" and comfortable. They want predictable.

 How to get from where we are now to where our dreams are doesn't seem logical. Most of the time we cannot see the steps of the ladder to get from here to our dreams. So, we discard the dream. We stop trying..

Look at it this way. A quantum leap is a leap. It's a jump. Most likely there aren't any rungs or steps going from where we are at now to the destination we want to arrive at. Just because we don't know all the hows and whats of the path doesn't mean we can't get to where we want to be.

Instead of incremental changes, we're looking for exponential gains. If you compare graphs of these, the incremental will continue to increase steadily. 

Exponential growth doesn't seem to do much for a long time. And it's often lower than the incremental growth for a time. 

Then there's a point when the exponential curve crosses the incremental, where both are momentarily the same. After that the exponential curve explodes upward far faster than the incremental growth.

And here's the cool part. That explosive, exponential growth doesn't happen because of harder or longer work. Mathematically (logically) the equation is still the same as when the curve started. It's just that at a certain point, usually around where the incremental and exponential meet, the multiplication effects of the exponential efforts start to explode, whereas before that point the multiplication didn't seem to be doing much.