Summary

The article challenges the conventional model of breakthroughs as sudden, transformative events, advocating instead for a focus on incremental steps and continuous development.

Abstract

The author of the article argues that the traditional view of breakthroughs as dramatic, life-altering moments is flawed and can lead to passive expectation rather than active engagement in personal growth. Instead, the article suggests that breakthroughs are part of a continuous process of development that includes a wide range of experiences such as experimentation, uncertainty, and learning from both success and failure. The author emphasizes that true growth is the result of consistent, small steps and that recognizing these incremental achievements as breakthroughs can foster a more sustainable and empowering approach to personal development.

Opinions

Breakthroughs are often romanticized as sudden and magical events, which can lead to inaction and reliance on hope rather than proactive effort.
The anticipation of breakthroughs may encourage a passive attitude, where individuals wait for change rather than actively working towards it.
The author critiques the idea of a 'Deus ex Machina' style of personal growth, where one expects an external source to catalyze instant transformation.
Hope based on the anticipation of breakthroughs is seen as potentially unconstructive if it leads to deferring investment in oneself.
Breakthroughs are redefined as moments in a longer process of development, which includes a diverse array of experiences and efforts.
The article posits that the true value lies in the period of development before and after a breakthrough, rather than the breakthrough itself.
The author encourages self-generosity in acknowledging and celebrating all forms of progress, no matter how small.
The conclusion suggests that viewing every instance of new thinking and behavior as a breakthrough can lead to a more consistent sense of accomplishment and self-trust.
The article advocates for letting go of the belief in sporadic, cataclysmic revelations in favor of recognizing daily growth as a series of breakthroughs.

An Alternative to the Model of Breakthroughs.

Everything is Process.

Anticipating breakthroughs presents a paradox.

I achieve breakthroughs by actively engaging. Yet counting on breakthroughs might encourage me to sit back.

Breakthroughs take place as I apply myself, or as I process experience from having applied myself. By synthesizing a range of input, I put things together in new ways. My new understanding empowers new possibilities and ways of being.

Breakthroughs don’t happen simply because I hope for them.

It’s kind of naive to anticipate a ‘Deus ex Machina’ exploding inside me at some random, unpredictable time from some unidentifiable, all-powerful source. That source is obviously not me. I’m not only invoking magic but relying on magic to change me forever for the better.

Sure, so doing may create a kind of un-pressuring which allows space for integration. It may fill me with hope.

Yet, is this kind of hope really constructive?

By putting energy into putting off, I’m moving away from investing in myself right now. If I need a break, I can take one without buying into a counterproductive myth.

As I illustrate step by step in The Myth of Breakthroughs: Fulfillment Through Incremental Steps, organizing myself around anticipating impending breakthroughs can discourage constructive daily habits and actions which support me proactively to realize my dreams.

What is a breakthrough?

A breakthrough is commonly understood to be a dramatic epiphany: a significant personal experience that instantly expands me and welcomes new horizons.

The idea cultivates images of being struck by lightning, blessed by God, and making a great stride that instantly pulls forward years of personal growth. Magic coalesces which catapults me into new dimensions I can immediately navigate and implement.

I’m transformed: A New Me!

It’s a universal utopian fantasy.

Eureka! I’m transformed!!! Photo by Michelle McEwen on Unsplash

My parent, my soulmate, my friend, God — the Universe — meets my needs, answers my prayers, and through euphoric experience brings me what I yearn for.

Things come together in just the right way.

Because a breakthrough brings expanded levels of functioning, perhaps it’s even better than orgasm.

What fun!

Magical Thinking — Fulfilled. Childhood Longing — Requited. Perfect Attune-ment — Achieved.

I sail off into the sunset, live into my dream of being superhuman, and welcome being forever Loved.

There’s just one tiny glitch.

Breakthroughs are almost invariably a result of a period of development.

A breakthrough is a momentarily interpreted culmination in a process seeded much earlier; a process that continues to affect and contribute to me.

That developmental period includes…

Yearning for expansion
Testing the waters
Determined application
Playing and experimenting and exploring
Having no clue
Thinking I know
Uncertainty
Confidence
Trial and error
Success and failure
Rejection and futility
Losing and gaining faith
Misguided contributions
Loving guidance
Undiscerned learnings
Putting things together on my own, etc.

The first time I touch a new ability or embrace a new awareness, I may feel glorious. However seldom does this revolutionizing experience immediately become my baseline.

A time of consolidation and reinforcement almost invariably both precedes and follows a ‘breakthrough’.

If I think my ‘breakthrough’ comes out of nowhere, or means I’ll never face related issues ever again, I may be ‘blindsided’.

While our language emphasizes words like “moment” and “arrival”, time never stops. That is to say, time is always moving — as are we all.

Just as a newly discovered “phenom” has been working away in anonymity (Tiger Woods was tutored in golf from age 3), ‘breakthroughs’ — especially ones that usher in new and sustainable levels of functioning — brew over time, sometimes years.

Even if their ingredients never receive acknowledgment, breakthroughs result from incremental steps.

Conclusion

It would be to my advantage to be much more ‘self generous.’ What would it be like to take the opportunity to congratulate myself for all manners of forward progress — even those I normally take for granted?

After all, every instance of new thinking and behavior can be deemed a ‘breakthrough!’

As a human being, I am always growing.

My intention is continually to expand.

I am learning to hold incremental steps as celebratory accomplishments I take pride in; to use them to build faith in myself and trust in my abilities.

Take Away

Thinking in terms of ‘breakthroughs’ can provide respite from the constant effort, as well as a paradigm for feeling fulfilled. However, by leading me away from quotidian actions which empower me to progress, believing growth occurs through ‘earth-shattering breakthroughs’ may prove unconsciously disheartening.

Viewing incremental forward steps as continuing breakthroughs creates a paradigm for consistent recognition and reward.

Letting go of my conception that growth occurs through sporadic incidents of cataclysmic revelation, in turn, empowers me to accomplish ‘breakthroughs’ every day.

‘Breakthroughs’ stand at once as celebratory culminations, and new foundations.’

Everything is process.

What’s most important is continuing to grow.

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