Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

Keep moving forward, even when you're going backwards or getting pushed back.

Two steps forward one step back. But even when you're taking three steps back, do take two steps forward.

Don't just give up and sit there. Don't play for the scoreboard. Keep shooting baskets and make some rather than none. The outcomes are not simply just win or lose.

Progress counts, whether the ship is moving ahead or falling behind. You cannot control the direction of the current, but you control the direction and momentum of yourself.

If you are one who gives into the current all the time, you may be heading forward easily, but without much direction.

If you are one who changes direction whenever the current is favorable, you may be crafty and adept and reach your destination, but the journey may be superficial. A combination of skill and luck, perhaps determination. You'll get what you wished for, but will it be the way you wanted it?

If you are stubborn and headstrong, you may never make it if the currents are unfavorable or you may endure strong resistance that impedes you. You may be discouraged or you may be so spent when you get there, that you do not enjoy the reward.

How you travel depends on your nature, decided by fate and bestowed upon you at birth. You may act differently than you are by nature, but you will know it does not feel natural.

Ultimately, you want to succeed the way you are. You do things the way that is natural to you, because it comes easier, and you are better suited to that style.

At some times, it may seem the other styles have the advantage and that your method is wrong, or a flaw, that they are better than you.

Styles are better suited for different environments and environments are ever changing. Every style has a situation in which it outperforms an alternative style. Don't dismiss your style as inferior or worthless or detrimental, simply because you see an alternative or more popular style outperform yours in situations.

Apply yourself to the situations that favor your style. Exemplify what advantages your approach has to offer. Show that your way of doing things in these situations can do it better. Represent the qualities that fate decided to characterize you.

Don't sell out and fake who you are. Don't take actions that you don't believe in to avoid challenges, be genuine. Don't act in a way that is not yourself to obtain something more easily.

Be willing to walk ten steps backward and ten more steps back, if that's what it takes to take two steps forward of your own.

Accept that the progress we make depends on forces outside our control. Accept the outcomes of living as we are, leading a genuine life, whether they are "successes" or "failures.

Be proud of applying yourself to getting the best of what you are, regardless of how you 'compare' to other people.