Success usually doesn’t happen overnight. It often takes many miles and overcoming many difficulties to arrive at our destination. And, in truth, sometimes we never arrive, but are always on the way. All the same, it still good to acknowledge the progress we are making.
To be sure, it’s hard to hold this tension of not yet being where we want to be, but also no longer where we used to be.
And it’s tempting to fall victim into all or nothing thinking.
On the one hand, we’re reluctant to count anything as progress because we’ve not yet fully arrived. The fear is that we might shortchange the process if acknowledge the progress made. When progress assumes we’ve arrived we want to be very clear that we have not and that we still have many miles to go.
On the flip side is the reluctance to admit we still have our work cut out for us because of how much ground we’ve already covered. The fear here is that more will always be required of us and we’re ready to be done. Admitting we’ve not arrived seems to imply we’ve not done any work and this is hard to accept.
A better approach is simply remembering we’re still on the way. We’ve covered some ground AND we’ve not yet arrived.
And whether it’s in our personal life, relationships, or communities at large, it’s good to acknowledge both of these realities.
Assuming we’ve arrived does shortchange the growth still possible. But not acknowledging the progress made tends to keeps the focus on our shortcomings and moves us no closer to the good we actually want to accomplish.
Learn to embrace the tension of being on the way – many miles still to go and yet affirming the progress made along the way.
Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash
