That is how we all want life to go. We want the dips that do happen to be as short and shallow as possible before we return to a steep clime indicating our success. Sadly that is just not the way life works out most of the time. In fact I don't think that is how it suppose to work for most people.
What I have found is the best tool to keep progress coming is a little adversity. If things are to easy the human condition is to get complacent. It may take week or a month and for those most motivated a few months. However eventually we all tend to sit back and think we can coast to victory.
One morning while have a small group discussion mostly about personal growth and development one of the group members proposed a great visual. We talked about it a while and made some changes and now it how I like to describe how most people experience success. These truths apply to everything we encounter. Educational growth, spiritual growth, fitness, business success these rules apply to them all.
The first truth of the discussion is standing still is impossible. I like to think of it as walking against the current in a wide, but shallow river. The water pushes hard against you all the time. Water takes the form of temptation, distractions, false rewards and so many other things. You will find that if you keep moving, even against the toughest current, you can quickly get to where you are going. However, if you decide to take a break and just stand still you will soon find that are are losing ground. Perhaps just a bit, but you are moving backwards. The rule is simple, if you are not making an effort to move forward, then you will be going backwards.
With that rule in mind here is the picture that developed. Life is like tracking the path of a yo-yo being played with by a person walking up a very slowly moving down elevator. In general the yo-yo stay in a zone between the chest and the knees. Some times the use will lose track and let it unwind. this will cause to drop lower then normal. Other times you are full of energy and you are spinning it out vertically and it stay up there near your shoulders for a while. This is certain to make our growth curve look great, for a while. Just when you get the yo-yo under control you will take a tumble on the escalator and down you go. Down to the steps, yo-yo on the ground and everything moving down and to the left. It may only take a few minutes to get back on your feet and moving again, or it may take a month.
So success requires a lot of factors to be managed. We have to keep moving against the flow of the down escalator. We have to keep the yo-yo moving, and hopefully not dipping to low before snapping back to the top.
My personal journey of getting to a healthy weight has been anything but linear. I drop down and then gain some back, and then drop, and then maybe gain more then I lost. but since 2010 my lows have gotten progressively lower, and my highs are not as high. More importantly the periods of gaining are shorter and then I return to making positive progress towards my goals. I think this is how success looks. Every day we get a little higher up the stairs, and when we slip, we look for a way to recover and get moving again.
Together we can all keep moving up and to the right.
Truth and Transformation!
David
