But to learn. Every discussion I have with you, podcast or lecture I listen to, page I read, calls me to be present.
Yet, I remain distracted, taking in only a fraction of what I should. The mind tells me that there is too much happening at the same time to have singular focus, which is true to an extent.
But if I, like you, choose to learn, how much farther can we go?
Plans being what they are, they seldom remain static once you start implementing them, and that is good.
We’re not where we thought we would be by today, but we’ve moved from where we were.
Though frustrating at times, there is progress. Something good happened, and we have another chance to move forward. And that is worth building on.
To move faster, you want to make sure that you only do something once. Any repeat slows you down. However, to be fast requires you to not do it with haste, but rather with care.
When we slow down to determine what exactly needs to be done and then do the steps at the right pace, we get there faster, and with better quality.
So, as we rush off to get started with the day or task at hand, a few moments to slow down at the beginning and throughout the process can be critical.
We may be looking back at the year that passed, thinking about how we did not make progress on many of the goals we set for ourselves. And yes, it might be true that we didn’t make it. And that is to be expected. No one who has taken multiple shots makes them all, including our most revered sporting icons. Michael Jordan, considered to the greatest basketball player of all time, failed to progress from the first round of the playoffs in his first 3 attempts. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar missed more than 40% of the shots he took. What made them great is not that they failed, but that they dusted off the failed attempts and came back repeatedly.
While we may not have the same incentives to try again, and some goals do not offer repeat chances, most times in life, we do get a second chance. And we can, with the lessons we learnt from the first or 10th attempt, whichever it was, try to improve on the next.
At the same time, you can take a moment to be thankful to yourself, for having worked, however much, on your goals. You could have chosen to do nothing, but you did something, moved a little forward, learnt a little more. You missed some shots, but yet here you are, alive to try again, or to do something else you want for yourself, having learnt and grown from previous experiences.
The journey might lead nowhere, or it might lead to somewhere good. But to find out, one must leave the shore and be happy to explore the fringes. For that is where we grow.
Random Walks 