To grow, you need practice.

To practice, you want to first never give up.

If you give up, you can't grow on that dimension.

A bar to clear, to satisfice.

Secondarily, you want to excel, to grow.

If you don't excel, there's no stretch to grow from.

A bar to maximize.

When you excel, you're in your flow state, your zone of proximal development.

All of your mental energy goes straight into the laminar flow of your development, not the swirling chaos of everyday distraction.

What does 'excel' mean?

Excel means to push beyond the baseline.

The baseline is not what your peers do.

Perhaps they've been training for a long time and you just started.

It might not be possible to excel compared to that baseline, and you'll give up.

Game over.

The baseline is what you have previously been able to do.

By excelling beyond your own personal baseline, you are growing.

And you're growing in a way that is achievable and unlikely to be game over.

Compare yourself not to your peers, but to former versions of yourself.

At the beginning you might be far behind your peers. But if you keep growing, before you know it you'll accumulate enough progress to be in the running.