Is progress satisfying? - A philosophical thought-experiment

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:02]What is up, YouTube? It does feel good to say that for those of you who don't know me, because obviously this is my first video that's going to be posted on this channel, at least on YouTube. I've done one video before on another channel with a friend of mine. But my name is ISI. I am a 19-year-old bodybuilder and a law student at the Arasmus University in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

[00:00:26]But today I want to talk to you about a subject of the satisfactory nature of progress or at least the lack thereof.

[00:00:36]The inspiration from for this YouTube video came from a real that Chris Bombs had posted about his Gym Shark collection that's dropping called Unfinished and what unfinished means to him at least. Unfinished means that basically I'm paraphrasing what he said, but he said, you know, unfinished means to me that there's always work to be done and there's no finish line.

[00:00:58]Therefore, progress will never be enough. He said it leaves you with two obvious choices. Either you become miserable because the progresses is never enough or you accept that it's never going to be enough so that you are enough which sounds kind of contradictory but I guess it does make sense but obviously those two choices are so hard to balance and actually um yeah just conceptualize what they what they are and how they would look like.

[00:01:34]I feel like especially also for me and a lot of other people the progress that we make in life be it for me bodybuilding or at least in my law study you know getting being a more proficient lawyer not yet officially of course but I'm becoming a lawyer um you make progress almost daily and it does feel like there is no finish line and most people do sometimes get a little a little bit overwhelmed or miserable by the fact that there is no finish line. But for me, I've been thinking about this and for me, I actually thought back at the times I used to play a lot of video games and also when I built Lego sets, which I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from, but I did in my last prep, which helped me tremendously to deal with, you know, the pressure and the stress of prep. But anyway, for me, the best part about grinding in a video game or building a Lego set or just doing anything with progression in general is that it always the sweet spot of satis satisfaction is always when you're like 3/4 of the way there because in the beginning it seems also far away what the result's going to be. Then halfway through you're like, "Oh, okay. I'm I'm getting somewhere."

[00:02:56]And around that 3/4 of the way there, you can see actually what it's becoming.

[00:03:02]And you start to just feel satisfied.

[00:03:05]And for me, I feel like it's almost impossible to be satisfied with progress or, you know, actually feel like what you're doing is enough. But I do get some sort of satisfaction in seeing progression. And I think maybe that's what we should focus on is just not necessarily thinking about, you know, I'm going to be happy when I achieve this or when I achieve that because those moments are very fleeting.

[00:03:42]When you do achieve something, when you do complete something, you look at it for a moment and you're like, oh, that's nice. But like a couple seconds later, you're like, okay, what's next?

[00:03:52]and what's next and that cycle continues.

[00:03:57]So you got to find satisfaction in another place. And the biggest argument people have against um being satisfied with your work is that it stops you from progressing because you know being hungry for more, being hungry for greatness or being very ambitious is ultimately what drives people forward and keeps them on their game every day.

[00:04:25]But I might be very optimistic in saying that I don't think you actually need to always feel hungry and motivated and discip well disciplined of course but you don't always need to be very hungry for more to achieve more. I feel like you could be because right now I'm what is it week 21 of this off season push phase however you want to call it bulk even and I've made tremendous progress I'm up 20 kilos 45 lbs since my last show since peak week and since the beginning of my push phase because obviously after my show I did gain some weight I think maybe it was 5 kg before I actually started this push phase offseason And then I gained a further 15 kilos which is like what 33 lbs maybe 34 35 like mid30s pounds and yeah as you can see here this is this progression is crazy the back double bicep has just in improved so much just my entire posterior chain is just up like you know I don't want to swear on here but yeah I think you can fill that word Um, but it does it does feel good in some sense, you know, that I've made this much progress, but it's not like I'm satisfied.

[00:05:53]And I don't think I should be, but now maybe I should be. But then again, the counterargument to this all, would I have worked this hard if I genuinely was satisfied? Because genuine satisfaction is what stops you from doing stuff.

[00:06:16]That's what they say. And is that the case? Well, I don't know. I don't think I'm experienced enough to conclude that that's the case. So maybe this is what I fear. What I fear is that whenever I do achieve something that I always thought I could achieve and that I want to achieve. So for me obviously I look at my goals and steps.

[00:06:38]you know, I want to get my pro card. I want to get my pro card. I want to qualify for the Olympia. I want to win big shows. I want to just do all these things. And we could get into my genetics if they will allow it in another video, which ultimately does not really matter for me, my genetic potential, because you know, like Mike Menser said, genetic potential is only the expression of a possibility, something that could be accurately assessed only in retrospect.

[00:07:07]So in other words, you never know how good you might have become unless you tried. So let's get with it. To put a quote from my idol Mike Mener in there.

[00:07:17]But yeah, my fear is that whenever I do achieve my genetic potential or my dreams is that I won't be satisfied.

[00:07:26]And I think it's a very real tangible fear that you can have especially if you're very ambitious because what if you Yeah. What if it disappoints?

[00:07:40]But then again, you should you know train your mind and you know how you know what they say, train your body but also train your soul and your mind to become better.

[00:07:52]um with philosophy of course or just whatever you please.

[00:07:58]I think there are all these fears about you know disappointment for your goals or not achieving your goals. But at the end of the day, if you've got something you truly want to achieve and that you're truly passionate for and that you don't mind working for or in my case absolutely love working for a goal, then why don't you just go get it? And all these things that I've discussed and all these things you can discuss about, you know, is it going to pay off? Is it this? Is it that? Do I got what it takes? Can I do this? Can I not do this?

[00:08:40]Why me or why not me?

[00:08:44]Just get after it, man. Get after it. Give it all you got. And if the progress makes you satisfied, well, we'll see about that later.

[00:08:58]Anyway, this was well, it's not really a rant. I don't know what I should call these. It's maybe just a deep thought experiment, I guess. No, I think I can come up with a better word. The title is going to be a better word. I'm gonna Yeah, I'm going to find a good title for these videos because it's kind of maybe a philosophical deep dive into my mindset or just a mindset of course because yeah, we don't always have to talk about me.

[00:09:31]But yeah, I'm going to do these more often. But for now, I do want to get one more message across to you, which is get after it. Do everything you can.

[00:09:46]Achieve your goals to the extent that you can because obviously you should put realistic expectations on yourself and not get not be too delusional. A little bit of delusion is good, which is probably something I'm going to be talking about in another video. But don't be too delusional. And finally, if you want to see more of this, you can like, subscribe, share this account on YouTube, or you can follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok. The link is going to be in the bio of the video. And I'll catch you guys next time. Peace.