The goal of level one is to get to level 2. The goal of level 2 is to get to level 3.
Life is an iterative process. After a certain number of iterations, you advance to the next level.
Iteration is defined as:
Rework is frustrating but often necessary. Reworking is revisiting the familiar. I prefer new. New is exciting. Repetition is boring.
The key is to make repetition fun by applying a key concept of gamification: Level up.
Another iteration of a program may be necessary to produce the desired result. The program does not complain how many times it has to repeat a sequence, it does so until the conditions are met.
Take an example of income.
Your level of income is determined by the conditions you set. If you have set a condition of $100k/year, then you simply need to run the number of earning iterations until that condition is met.
Success is not hard work, it's just another iteration.
Learning is an iterative process.
Iterative Learning Control (ILC) is a method of tracking control for systems that work in a repetitive mode. ILC systems perform the same action over and over again with increasing precision.
Musicians do this. The more they perform, the more flawless their performance becomes. It's been said that one performance is equal to seven rehearsals because we are hyper tuned into our actions when other are watching (and judging us). Practice will rarely be done at the same intensity.
We don't take it seriously as a rehearsal, but we do when it's a performance. But rehearsals only happen in your mind. In reality, we are always performing.
Repetition allows a system to improve it's accuracy from repetition to repetition, in effect learning the required input needed to track to a point of reference.
This is why people get what they want. When you don't have a frame of reference, don't be upset by what you don't get. The system can only improve if it as a point of reference to compare to.
This is easily understood because the learning process itself uses information from previous repetitions. Each time it measures and adjusts. Like throwing darts, we adjust where we aim, the velocity, and intensify our focus until we land one in the bullseye.
Watch the intensity of a golfer on the putting green who is putting for par. Tiger Woods, before his fall from grace, was well known as spending hours perfecting his putt.
Control improves through action iteratively. Mathematically, we can continue to improve infinitely. It's up to us to determine when we are 'within spec.'
Each time, you improve what you wrote. One iteration may be reading aloud. Another may be sending it to a beta reader. Another may be submitting it to your critique group. Another may be dropping it into Grammarly. Each time, your writing improves. Who knows how many iterations a successful book has been through? Likely dozens!
The important thing is to show up every day. Meet the page (or the screen) every day. The page is your office. This is where you do your work!
Each day is a just a new iteration!
Shout out to Albert Flynn DeSilver who inspired this essay.