I love Banksy! I would have loved to see him render this one though.
Progress is never linear. Acknowledging that it is volatile can be a critical mindset change in your life. How might you feel differently if you EXPECTED that you’ll have moments of accelerated growth as well as moments of backwards movement? That after a period of retreat, there would be forwards movement just around the corner? If you didn’t continue, you would miss a moment of accelerated growth!
Another component of progress is simply REST and RECOVERY. This graphic is a wonderful illustration. Sometimes you’ll expend a lot of energy moving forward in your life, a project, your relationships, your career.
But then, you’ll reach a point where your energy and motivation wane.
When it does, do you falter? Get discouraged? Quit?
What if you took a break? A vacation? Time away? More sleep? Did something else for a while?
You may find yourself RE-ENERGIZED when you come back to it!
As I mentioned before, progress is never linearly up and to the right. You think you can just run up those stairs and maintain progress continuously but it never happens that way. Sometimes you just need a break, and then when you come back to the steps you are RECOVERED enough to take the next few steps forward.
You may even find the steps have changed…maybe easier? Maybe less difficult?
When you look at the goals and struggles in your life, how does this resonate with you? What if you were to acknowledge and expect that progress is never linear? What if you were to take more breaks on your quests for “up and to the right”?
What would happen to your journeys? How different would you feel about your progress?
Image credit: toyoufromsteph, HT Jacinta M. Jiménez, PsyD, BCC
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