Improvement Arises Through Consistent Maintenance

Maintenance is the gateway to improvement. You may have heard me mention “go to the soil not the plant” when approaching change. These are the same concepts with different metaphors. The flow state we strive for is about how we engage with maintaining it at a certain level more than it is about doing something with the flow. It’s about maintenance not improvement. Go to the soil, not the plant. Tend to what’s in your garden and already in your care. Nourish it and plant new seeds if you wish. Then tend to those. Some will sprout and some won’t and that’s ok. The maintenance of these spaces, these parts of ourselves, will be what ultimately brings us to the improved state we were looking for in the first place.

It’s actually through the maintenance that we arrive at the improvement. Fitness, our food, our environments, our spirits, our minds, our coordination, our interpersonal skills, our cognitive and executive function, our capacity to discern right and wrong, yes and no, good and bad – these are the parts of us that require maintenance to run smoothly. Just like a car, there are so many components working together to allow it to function and serve as transportation from A to B, and bring movement towards change. We need to change the oil and fill the fluids and flush the transmission and sometimes buy a new battery. Tend to it and you’ll see how it will naturally bring you toward what you’re after. Sustain these practices of maintenance and you may notice the improvement you seek is already well on its way.