Prime Indicator of Evolution (PIE)

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Everybody defines "success" differently, but no matter how one defines it, it's always good to have a clear indicator to show one's progress in life.

This is that I call the "Prime Indicator of Evolution" or PIE.

It's a simple measure of how you progress in life, how you evolve as a human being. If you don't have one, please don't panic. It's never too late to come up with a prime indicator of evolution.

It's always more fun to feel that one is moving forward and making progress.

The key question to ask yourself is, "Am I growing as a person?"

This is a question I asked myself in the summer of 2000, and the answer was "No." So I quit my corporate job and began a soul-searching journey that led me to who I am today: that is, an obsessive serial entrepreneur intent on world domination.

Just kidding.

Sometimes, one's ego may be growing but that is not the same as the person growing. Our ego are often attached to material things like money or a house or a car or even a wife (or what they call a "trophy wife").

As our material possessions grow, our ego also grows. But the problem with the ego is that it is unconscious and quite incapable of focusing in any meaningful direction. All it wants is "more." More, more, more.

This ego keeps growing until one day, the mid-life crisis occurs (at around age 42). This is when people begin to question their assumptions about work, life, society and their very identity. This intense period is often painful psychologically, but the pain itself is not necessarily bad. It's just a sign that some change is needed. Some drastic change.

However, there's no need to wait until one is 42 to question oneself.

You just have to ask yourself, "What is a good indicator that tells me I'm growing as a person?"

Here are a few indicators of "evolution":

• You're meeting new people and making new friends
• You're reading non-fiction books in order to expand your knowledge and horizons
• You're practicing and perfecting an art or craft or hobby of yours
• You're blogging obsessively every day, hoping to achieve world domination through the written word (that would be me) :-)
• You're dating people (usually, members of the opposite sex) and are getting to know yourself more through the process (and of course, getting to know the other person)
• You're taking courses or are attending seminars/workshops

The above is obviously not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea. Activities where you create something or where you experience something new, usually leads to personal evolution. Please notice that watching TV or reading superficial magazines is not in the list!

That being said, I can't really say that TV is bad or that magazines are bad. Sometimes, we need something to stimulate our imagination or just to relax.

It's all relative, in the sense that it's up to each person to decide whether he/she wants to evolve or not.

But assuming that a person has decided to engage on the path of personal evolution, then it helps to have a Prime Indicator of Evolution. This indicator could be the number of books you read per month, the number of hours you spend on your art/craft/hobby, the number of new people you meet, the number of friends you hang around with and have meaningful conversations with, etc.