Realistic Progress

* Below are some low-tech drawings for a presentation I was asked to give a few years ago. I may include this in my book also. (I added them to Chapter 11 on July 21, 2020.)

I believe “our best” is different every day, depending on: how much sleep we had the night before, the challenges we are having with our health, what our family members are doing that worry us, or (let’s be honest) where we are in our monthly cycle. So, “our best” on one day may be very different than “our best” on another day. The most important thing is that we are heading in the right direction. I like how a graph explains this – and I even drew this all by myself. Our goal is to make progress toward our eventual goal of eternal life. But it’s not a straight shot, is it? 

It’s actually more like this, isn’t it? Life is difficult and we have lots of ups and downs while we are still heading in that overall upward direction.  (And you will notice that this first dip goes even lower than the starting point—which I think is significant, even though I didn’t purposely draw it that way.)

***

Here is another way to look at progress that I learned during one of my therapy sessions last year. Even though you feel like you aren’t progressing, you still are and things will feel better soon. 

My favorite inspirational singer, Hilary Weeks, wrote a  song called “Someday Down the Road” that describes this. “It’ll come around. It just takes time. It takes living life to get living life right.” So, when you’re in the downward part of the loop, just realize that progress is still happening. It just needs more time to become noticeable.