Moving Forward by Stepping Back

“I’ve been working on this four years.  It seems as if I should be getting rewarded by now!” – Mark Jackson

Moving Forward by Stepping Back

My friend Mark was talking to me about one of his particular goals via text. 

“I’ve been working on this four years.” Lit up screen.

Mark’s frustration was blazing right in front of my eyes.

“It seems as if I should be getting rewarded by now!”  My screen flashed next.

He went on to tell me how much he had accomplished over the last four years, yet he couldn’t seem to accept his own accomplishments.  It made me hurt inside for him!  So, since that conversation, around one week ago, I’ve thought about it over and over again.  And, I resolved to understand what was really at the heart of his irritation.

You and I both understand being irritated at not reaching the destination we have worked so hard to achieve.  And, I’ve discovered that perhaps the greatest challenge of any journey toward any destination is the need to feel progress.  When we feel as if we are making progress we are encouraged to press forward.  When we feel as if we aren’t making progress we begin to lose hope quickly and are often persuaded to quit.  That’s how Mark has been feeling.  He doesn’t see his progress.  But there is one other key I recently discovered.

Mark has done what all of us have had to do from time to time.  He stepped back.  He took steps away from his goal so he could regroup and then charge forward again.  But, now he feels as if his step back to gain strength is a symptom of being stuck.

I can see the strength he has captured and that he is really moving forward.  Gathering strength is not the same as being stuck in the same place.  It’s part of the process of moving forward!  If you think about it, you can see evidence of this concept all around us.

The evidence that strikes me most is that of becoming acclimatized.  When seasons change the weather seems either way too cold or way too hot.  But, by the end of a season our bodies have adjusted so the deep colds or the high heats don’t affect us so much.  Notice that this changing is an ever-going process.

 We feel cold so we backtrack to the house to get a coat or jacket.  We feel hot, when summer comes on, so we backtrack to the house to drink more water and wear lighter clothing.  It’s the stepping back that allows us to be prepared to face what life will throw at us next!

It is the stepping back that allows us to regain our strength and to carry on toward our destination.  So, you might say, you and I can only move forward by stepping back once in a while.  Knowing this, and keeping it in mind, will cause a shift in our thinking so that rather than feeling stuck we can see stepping back for what it is, a strengthening, and an essential part of forward progress!