Good morning, Daily Peppers, and a very happy Tuesday to you. So one of the things I'm working hard on in my own life right now is dog training. We have our fabulous cockapoo, Merlin. And he is a, to put it lightly, a bundle of energy. And I think not only our lives, but also his life could be improved with some more boundaries. So we are firmly in the grips of dog training. And I'm gonna be honest, it is equal parts rewarding and frustrating. But it has really reminded me of something that I've needed to hear and I think you might need to hear as well.
And it's progress isn't always linear. At the start of a project, we can get really excited, and there's all the energy and enthusiasm there. And we tend to start seeing results pretty quickly in terms of let's take a basic example of if we're doing a painting, we quickly go from nothing is on the blank page to something is on the blank page. And that feels really good because it feels like we're doing something. But as time goes on and we get more into the process, it can feel a bit harder. We can get stuck in the weeds. We also tend to make mistakes, which is a completely natural part of the process, and we can feel like we're not making much progress. I know the same is true for training Merlin.
That first week, we were giddy with excitement, and it was feeling really novel. And he was also making really, really quick progress, and I think all of us were feeling good. Now three weeks into it, it feels like this sometimes he wakes up and decides he's not gonna listen, and it is not feeling as shiny and new anymore. But that doesn't mean there's not progress. As frustrated as we can get by it, if we take a moment and reflect, we can also see that he is so much further ahead than he was when he started. But it can be really hard to see that because the goalpost has moved, and you know more about what you didn't know to begin with. So for today's daily pep, I simply wanted to give you some encouragement and just a reassurance and a reminder that progress isn't linear, and that's just a natural fact. That doesn't mean that you're doing anything wrong, and it can also be frustrating.
And that's okay too, and that doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong either. My encouragement for both of us is to really note the small wins and celebrate the fuck out of them, to remember just how far you've come and to think about the resistance beforehand and what your beliefs about what were possible and see where you are right now. And also just to focus on the showing up every day in whatever minuscule way you can, and try not to be comparing where you are all the time to the end goal. The big picture can really help in terms of the bigger why and our motivation, but let's not use it as a stick to beat ourselves with. So here's to making wonky progress on all of our journeys. Here's to being fucking proud of ourselves for showing up in the first place. And here's to doing the tiny steps, tiny, tiny, tiny steps every day. We've got this.