<div class="text-justify">

<center>![y (1).JPG](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/galenkp/AKe9YBajdhzETsnekNhZGeXN6jETMJftSSua7GkRurv9g6FFFg4fkJT1LQuVM3q.JPG)</center>

<center>*The biggest room in the world is the room for improvement.*</center>

<center>**- Helmut Schmidt -**</center>
***
***

I had the engine and transmission on my LandCruiser tuned today. I wrote about having it done some time ago, which you can read ***<a href="https://peakd.com/hive-168869/@doudoer/would-you-ever-give-your-life-so-that-someone-else-could-live-week-124">here</a>***, and today was the day it happened. I'll write about the actual tune, performance and power gains more specifically on another post although initially I have been really happy with how it went. 

When I dropped it off I spent a half hour chatting with the engine tuner, one of the best around, about finding performance and more specifically all the small things he did to seek it out and tune it into my vehicle. He was telling me about the many, many hundreds of hours spent studying technical data, understanding the concepts involved and of course, the years he's spent as a vehicle mechanic and technician. He's an older chap, a little older than myself, and it was really interesting to see the excitement he showed about finding those small gains here and there and applying them collectively towards the attainment of better performance.
***
#### One hundred percent

It led me to think about how a person who seeks continual self-improvement gains by doing exactly the same thing, and whilst we can't plug ourselves into a computer and tune ourselves, that doesn't mean we can't find many small gains as we go through life, the thoughts and attitudes that lead us towards better skills which ultimately lead us towards greater results, achievements, successes or outcomes. It's not dissimilar to the chap tuning my engine and transmission.

I've spent my life doing that myself, across many different aspects of my life, and know many others who have done the same. I've gone about it in a rather relentless fashion to be honest and, whilst others have pushed me towards improvement, *none could ever drive me harder than I do myself. 

At times I've taken it too far of course and it's not gone so well. 

Burn-out, physical, emotional and mental fatigue can hit a person hard, and it was at one such time someone said to me, *even the fastest Formula One car needs to come into the pits for service at some stage.* They were wise words that penetrated deeply.

It means that a balance of sorts needs to be found, that one cannot run at one hundred percent forever. 

#### Continual improvement

It was around then I began to seek balance but that didn't mean I did things at a fifty-fifty ratio, you know, only partly or on a causal basis. *I still applied one hundred percent energy, effort and focus but I balanced that with down-time also deployed at one hundred percent*, and it's through that method I began to develop faster, and with greater depth whilst maintaining in my health in all aspects. It's a concept I apply to this day in all aspects of my life and I've some amazing results. 

It translates to being *one hundred percent present* in the moments of my life either work, recreation, relationships and social, or self-care aspects along with all the others. I am one hundred percent there rather than having my focus split across several different areas. Sure, I can switch from one to the other instantaneously as need demands, but the focus, the presence, is there.

In speaking with the engine tuner today I realised that he applied the exact same focus to his own life. 

He owns the mechanical workshop where I service the LandCruiser and is one of the best diagnostic and tuning guys money can buy...it didn't come easy. But that's the thing I guess, some things are worth working hard for and I believe all of us have a responsibility to ourselves to seek that best-life situation. Whether we attain it or not doesn't matter because simply trying to do so means we improve along the way and, in my assessment *seeking continual improvement is better than seeking perfection, because perfection simply doesn't exist for humans.*

Tuning our lives isn't an easy thing to do, but it can be rewarding; continually improving ourselves is also rewarding as it means we move forward into the future a little more prepared, a little more equipped and a little more ready for what may come. The experiences from the past affect the present and that affects the future.
***

How do you prepare yourself in the present to affect your future? How do you add skills, understanding, concepts, thoughts and attitudes to carry you forward with a little more confidence, vigour and to improve your chances of greater results and outcomes? Feel free to comment below. 

</div>

***
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - *Tomorrow isn't promised so be humble and kind*

<sub><sub>This image was taken by me.</sub></sub>