You are at level 1 of this building. You want to get to level 7, so what do you do? You take the lift or use the stairs. No matter what, you are going up to level 7 from level 1. The thing is, how are you doing it? Did you enter the lift and the lift teleport to level 7? No. You went up level by level. You can never get to level 7 without reaching level 2, level 3, and so on. In real life, there is no such thing as Gameshark Codes. We all know we can only get up level by level, yet why do we often try to jump and skip some levels when it come to intangible things?

Let's say you just started learning to draw (ps Zixing and friends, not picking on you all, just a random example). What are you going to draw, and how? Are you going to start by drawing a city completely out of your creative mind, without referring? Chances are, you either give up halfway or feel demoralise. This is because a beginner cannot do something intermediate. Even if it may harm your pride, start with an apple or something. This is just like going up a building. You are at level one, so don't try to jump to level 3. Move up to level 2 first.

In other words, do things step by step. You may think that giving yourself pressure forces yourself to grow fast. That is true, but you have to give yourself pressure in a step-by-step manner. Some things really cannot be handled with pure determination. Instead, what you need is not just determination, but what you need is both determination and PATIENCE. You have to be patient to take things step by step!

According to "Mental Strength" by Iain Abernethy, a book which i mentioned in the previous post, we have to go against discomfort to condition our mind into succeeding. It also did mention that giving ourselves some discomfort is right, but too much is not. Just like when you do too much exercises, you will end up straining your "muscles" and it has a negative impact. The example about drawing which i mentioned above is a simple one that proves this point.

According to "Happiness in Hard Days" by Andrew Matthews, a book i recently bought, there is no one special day when we suddenly say "I'm cured!" from some sort of depression. If we want to fight depression, we fight it step by step. Do one small thing. When it succeed, move on to the next. You will continuously feel encouraged by your small successes. This way, you can grow your successes as time passes. This applies in going through hard days as well. Don't think too much about the problems you have to face in the future when the problem you have to face now is big enough. Just do what you can now and feel encouraged by your smallest successes.

This step-by-step approach can be used for most things. Even now, we, secondary school graduates who are preparing for poly, have to do tones of annoying things to apply for the poly. We don't just do everything at once and feel proud for it. We do one thing at a time. There is nothing wrong with doing things step by step. It doesn't mean you cannot handle difficulties. All successful people succeed because they took one step at a time. They didn't miraculously become successful. This is then true success.