Learn to Keep Pushing Forward

When I was younger and ran into difficulties I would often stop. I would want to wait to better understand what is going on before I took a next step.

This would result in analysis. I would analyze the situation to try and find the best path forward. While trying to figure out what to do, I would stop any action.

This seemed like a good thing. If I am going to change paths, why keep on the wrong one? It makes more sense to use all my energy to figure it out and then shift everything to that new journey.

Now I realize that is a hindrance. Life is always changing. Things are always shifting. Instead of stopping to analyze, we should analyze as we move forward. We should keep making progress.

As long as we keep moving forward, the options change. We gain experience. We move past obstacles. If we are always focused on making progress, then we can have better options over time.

If we stop, we always deal with the same obstacles. We face the same challenges. We have to decide between a bunch of bad options either way. But at least if we move forward some of those bad options will be better.

At a previous company, I did a lot of interviewing. It was for an entry level position. Most of the candidates, were not actually entry level. Most had years of experience. Some had 20 plus years of working. Yet they were interviewing for our entry level position.

It seemed that most were not interested in making progress. They didn’t advance their career. Instead they just bounced from low level job to low level job.

They would get frustrated with a job and quit. Then they would start their search for their next job. Because they didn’t have employment, they often had to settle for any job that would pay them.

It would turn into a cycle. They would work the new job for a bit. They wouldn’t mind the job at first. But the more they worked the more likely they would find something they disliked. They searched for it. Once they found a reason the company was taking advantage of them, they would quit. Then they started their next job search.

A friend of mine mentioned to me about his son job-hopping a lot. I asked him if it was to move into better roles or different roles?

He didn’t see the difference. I told him that his son was young and probably trying to figure out what was a good fit for his interests.

It turned out he kept changing for better roles. He was getting promoted. He worked hard. He was expanding his network. Most of the changes were within the same company, shifting to a different department.

I told him that job hopping could hurt him but to me it was different. He was advancing. That is different than the person changing to change. Instead he was making progress and fine-tuning his career. With many changes within the same company, he was demonstrating the ability to tackle more challenging roles.

Once I learned to keep making progress, I realized how much opportunity comes when we keep advancing. It doesn’t have to be our career.

I often hit a plateau with my health and fitness goals. I often find myself gaining weight or feeling less energetic during workouts. I used to stop working out to figure out what I should do.

Now I don’t. Now I keep working out. I look for ways to tweak my routine, but I don’t stop. This usually leads to an easier transition to a new workout routine.

This same mindset applies to most of our goals. Do we stop and analyze? Or do we keep making progress while we analyze the situation to determine better ways to proceed?