If we do not keep growing our knowledge, and accomplishments, then we live on yesterday’s reward – and that just won’t cut it! We don’t live on yesterday’s victories, but we do stand on yesterday’s shoulders. Our challenge is to keep on growing, building and becoming tomorrow’s victory, but know that it’s only a step forward and not the final goal line.
I use yesterday’s achievement to keep myself looking forward to the next great accomplishment!
Keep Moving Forward
We often think that reaching the goal means we get to stop for a while, but reality speaks. We need to keep moving forward.
It’s not about being pressured to move ahead. It’s more about not being content with sitting back with a smug feeling of arriving. There’s no time to rest on our laurels! It’s now the next day. Tomorrow is here. Snooze you lose! Get up and get moving!
How Do You Move Forward
For me it’s simple. Acknowledge where I am. Ensure my goals are written down and memorized. Look over my shoulder at where I’ve come from. Now. What do I need to do to move ahead?
For example, I’ve read Stephen Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, but for the start of August, I decided to refresh myself on the principles. Yes. I’m in my 60’s, but that does not prevent me from conditioning my life to stay effective and relational.
In fact, check out the Franklin Covey website and you will find many free webinars designed to help you understand where you are, what you’ve done and then get you to where you’re wanting to go! The webinars are free, you can buy a product if you want, and even sign up for deeper training.
The key is to not remain static but to take steps to keep moving forward.
Staying still is living on Yesterday's Reward! Moving forward is accepting that Yesterday is past and Tomorrow is now! Click To TweetMovement Is Not The Only Key
I’m not a proponent of simply moving for the sake of trying to not stay where I’ve been. Unless I’m in quicksand or something else that’s pulling me deeper. Then I want to scramble and get out of there quickly! Any direction will do! Just don’t get sucked down! Perhaps we all need to learn when to “cut our losses” and feel the liberty about forwarding momentum, but it’s the agony of feeling defeat that anchors us to a lost cause.
Still. I’m a documenter. A writer. Note-taker. List maker. And from this process, I weed out the unnecessary and unwanted, then trim my directional needs so I can make positive forward movements.
“The discipline of writing something down
is the first step toward making it happen…”
~Lee Iacocca
Unwarranted movement is dangerous. Normally, a person stranded in the wilderness is cautioned to stay in one place. Right? Yes. But staying in a hopeless undocumented world is just as dangerous as going off half-cocked!
Adjustments Are Necessary
A sailor never trims the sails and rudder to one position and leaves it alone. Rather, understanding the constant variableness of the winds and currents that keeps the focus on changing conditions. Pilots are the same way. Drivers, you should be acting the same way. It’s not just traffic and road conditions, but it is also that weirdo in the lane next to you or that blind person who pulls out from a side street with no regard to their surroundings!
Constant trimming and adjustments in life are needed! Stagnant ponds are the result of nothing new cycling through the water system. Just take it in and not be a producer then you will never be anything more than scum. Don’t take that wrong! We’ve all experienced it. We need to be shaken out of the doldrums, evaluate ourselves, take note of the near and far-off future, and get in gear and G-O!
What’s Next?
Analyze where you are at, and this is not a self-analyzation only. Ask questions of others. Look for solutions. Glean information. Study it all.
Write out your plan. I love the scripture out of one of the Minor Prophets in the Old Testament. I love the way this translation speaks about a vision.
And Jehovah answered me and said, Write the vision, and make it plain on the tablets, that he who reads it may run. For the vision is still for an appointed time, but it speaks to the end, and it does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it; because it will surely come. It will not tarry.
(Habakkuk 2:2-3 MKJV)
Get into motion! It’s said that one of the biggest factors in losing weight is movement. Not just controlling calories or all those other pesky measurements, but getting up and moving forward!
One Last Thing
In my earlier days of computing, we called it Data Processing, there was a standard look at how computers worked. Input-Process-Output. Garbage In. Garbage Out. Maybe this should be taught again today. It’s all about what we input, how we process, and what we produce.
Care to share your processing of life? I’m interested!