On the Difference Between Motion and Progress

Busyness is the most comfortable substitute for progress, because from the inside the two feel nearly identical. Both fill the hours. Both produce exhaustion. Only one changes your position.

The useful question is not "am I moving?" but "am I moving toward something I chose?" Motion without direction is merely noise with effort attached. A great deal of what we call hard work is really just well-dressed restlessness.

Pause long enough to name the direction. Then the movement can mean something.