1 Step Forward 2 Steps Back?
1 step forward 2 steps back...
It might feel that way… you’re making progress toward your goal, you’re feeling the momentum build, and then something derails you. You might not even know what that something is, but you feel yourself slipping back and it’s like you’re having to start ALL over again.
But you’re not.
I know what this feels like, as though the progress was just a tease, like a 70 degree day of sunshine in February in Portland. A tease. Hope stirs. You feel the excitement rising, and possibility gains clarity through the fog. You actually remember what feeling good feels like. And then, you’re hit. A trigger strikes… whether a temptation or a mindset or merely a feeling/memory you can’t completely locate why… but it’s there. And the sense of a downward spiral consumes you. TWO steps back…
You start to identify with it, as though it’s what’s destined for you…
It feels like you’re taking one step forward and two steps back because you’re stuck in past standards and attached to a WAY it needs to look, and these expectations are hijacking you from allowing awareness of the learnings and growth in the present.
What to do instead?
- Notice what’s happening. What’s the learning?
Give presence to the process of embarking on a new terrain and keep going in the direction of your INTENTION, your WHY. Knowing, intuitively, the direction forward is the only one… and that you will take yourself in all shades of being along the way. Keep picking yourself up. Keep showing up for you. Keep demonstrating that YOU got YOU.
- What insights are offered?
You are never going back. Only forward. There is no going back. Only forward.
You certainly have the CHOICE to behave as your past self, choosing a past energy out of comfort. This is where you get stuck. This is where you feel like you’re falling behind.
When you step into new ways of being you rub against resistance, and the ebbs and flows of action are part of the process. Your subconscious mind is trying to bring you back to a homeostasis of the comfort zone you’ve created… even if that is one you consciously are seeking to rise from.
This is the illusion of falling backward.
When we can get the conscious and subconscious to work together, we can start to dissolve more of the resistance and feel the momentum of forward movement EVEN when we are met with a sense of regression. We can see this as a growing pain of the subconscious mind, an opportunity for building resilience and strength. It’s just the subconscious mind adapting to an unknown. You can work with this to reinforce resilience and power. You can pick yourself back up as you would a dear friend, and come back to the purpose of this journey you’ve chosen.
- How are you relating to the feeling?
Free yourself from the “one step forward two steps back” mindset by releasing any labels of your progress according to any other standard than forward momentum.
If the mindset is dragging you down and associations of failure, stories from the past, words or moments from others arise as you notice that feeling, remind yourself that all of those are OVER DONE AND GONE.
Empower yourself in the present moment. Empower yourself in knowing you are the author of your life. You are the director. You are the producer. You have much more agency over how your life evolves than you give yourself credit for. What if you started to do just that- give yourself more credit and act as your highest advocate for your life. Never seeing a moment again as “two steps back.” It’s all learning. It’s all leading you forward.
Choose to see the light. Choose to trust the light is always there, always coming into greater focus. Choose that.
Write a new story. Write a story that replaces the narrative of "one step forward two steps back," with one of elevated curiosity and compassion for your unique, empowered journey!
