"Does this hurt?"

"Nope."

"How about this?"

I shake my head, relieved with the progress.

I'm lying down on the bed of my physio's office as he's doing some movement tests on my right big toe. He's stretching it to its extreme ranges to test for pain.

This has been my treatment routine every 1-2 months because I got my toe pretty badly injured from football in January...

Yes, that's nearly 11 months ago 😢

Basically, both an opponent and I were in a 50-50 situation to challenge for the ball but we both missed the ball entirely and ended up kicking each other's foots instead.

I came off the unluckier one and have been carrying that injured toe ever since.

Recovery has been tough. Slow. Frustrating at times. But there’s progress.

Not the magical, overnight kind of progress. The messy, gradual kind.

It started with my toe hurting daily. Then every two days. Then a few times a week. Eventually, it only hurt after walking long distances. For the most part, I had to wear a toe separator for months to realign my toes again.

Now? It only flares up after a really intense football session, and even then, recovery drills get it back to normal.

All that progress - in over 11 months.

It's slow, but it's still progress.

And that's what real progress looks like: no magic formulas, no quick fixes. Just the long road that guarantees results.

This is the same for your mental health, physical health, and productivity. Progress in all 3 of these area often feels slow at times because that's how it should be when you're doing it right and not sucked in to some overnight-promise gimmicks.

Speaking of progress, I have an overdue update:

Earlier in the year I was on track to finish up a productivity course that would have been set to launch by the new year.

I'm most likely not going to hit that deadline because it has been challenging nailing down concepts to teach the things I know while making it immediately applicable to your life.

I don't want to sell a course for the sake of selling something. But I'm not giving up on it either, because I know there's good value in my knowledge there but I just don't want to be artificially constrained by an end-of-year deadline for now.

I am however, clearing up my schedule for a different kind of offer by the end of the year.

It's not going to be direct 1 on 1 coaching because my schedule is still full with legacy clients, but it will be something that bridges the gap between taking a self-paced course and direct coaching.

There's no name for whatever this is yet, as I'm still finalising its concept. When I am sure of this, I'll be sending out updates in the next couple of days/weeks.

Until tomorrow!

Nicholas Ng