Traction

There are moments in life when feel like you're gaining traction.

It's odd, because they don't always come in the places and at the times that you think that they would. Sometimes we can spend great amounts of time and effort laboring to improve in one or more areas - only to discover that some other area is suddenly taking action. Perhaps this means that in working on the other things, we were working on the things that were really important.

Another odd thing is that when you do start to get traction in something, you are surprised half to death. You get used to the slow death, the Doldrums of life, doing a low-gear grind making little ground - and suddenly the sun rises, the winds blow, the tires hit a solid patch of ground and before you know it your much farther than you expected - or maybe intended.


Interestingly enough, in my case this is usually followed by shock. I have become so used to not making progress that actual progress is something of a surprise for me. True to form, I'm never really ready for the next step, having to scramble to suddenly get the next piece of information, the next step, directions to the next leg of the journey.

And in this perhaps lies the difference between those that accomplish and those that don't: those that accomplish expect the traction to be gained and so are ready with the next move, while those that don't accomplish much have become so used to not accomplishing that there is a sense that there is no need to make a new step in the plan, because it is never happening.

So perhaps in this is the challenge of planning goals and objectives and life courses: not only to have the plan, but to be prepared when things actually go correctly.

Because out of the mud and in high gear, it's amazing how much progress you can make in a short time.