Progress is often thought of as a straight line. If I can do 10 press-ups, then the way I get to doing 20 is by adding one a day, if I want to run further I gradually build distance over time. What if we want to enhance our wellbeing? Do we add more activities, do we drink bigger smoothies, read bigger and more improving books?

Some very big brains have suggested that the idea of 'progress' as a linear process where we proceed from point A to point B by addition is unhelpful because the true point B as an end point is unknowable. One of the biggest brains of the last century Ludwig Wittgenstien said this in his work Culture and Virtue

If somebody scratches where it itches, does that count as progress? If not, does that mean it wasn’t an authentic scratch? Not an authentic itch? Couldn’t this response to the stimulus go on for quite a long time until a remedy for itching is found?”

Wittgenstien is famously difficult to interpret and he was speaking about the progress of philosophy but for me today it doesn't much matter. What I'm taking from his words is that it is the process of scratching that is important, some itches may need lots of scratching in different places and from different directions. We also need to bring our focus to the 'authentic itch' that we are trying to scratch.