3 steps forward, 2 steps back

 

I

remember being taught to lift weights differently than I had thought I should when I first began. I had been trying to lift the most weight I possibly could in order to gain bragging rights. But then someone pointed out that you gain very little by lifting the most you can only one time. Much more is gained by significantly lower weight, but many repetitions. Eventually, the bragging rights go up because the consistent up and down of the lower weights significantly increases the total weight you can lift at one time.

I have noticed a parallel in life. I have goals and desires that I want to accomplish immediately. I already have the skills and abilities for some of those goals, but I would need the cooperation of others to achieve them. That cooperation is part of the lower-weight/many-repetitions process of life.

Some progress comes in one area and it looks like I am headed toward the accomplishment of a goal, but then in another area I hit a set-back. So I adjust my focus to this other area and begin to see some success and accomplishment toward the goal and the previous area where I had seen prior success hits a roadblock or setback. It’s a never-ending process of gaining a few yards, dropping back and punting. Then waiting to get the ball back, struggling for a few more yards, dropping back and punting. Then waiting....

It can be frustrating, especially so when the ultimate goals have been in place for decades and when I get close the set-back hits and discouragement sets in. And I think discouragement is the true battle—not the set-backs or roadblocks. I have to keep lifting the lower weights over and over again with each repetition bringing on greater strength—each repetition moving me a few inches closer to the ultimate goal.

I’m reading a book that is a bit of a departure for me in my casual reading and the following passage from that book brought these thoughts to mind:

I argue because I must. Sometimes I argue to discover the efficacy of a thought or the validity of a plan. Sometimes I argue to tap the knowledge of others. We constantly affirm ourselves. A single corn plant growing in the basement cannot pollinate. It requires other stalks, the sun, the wind. Life—the search for truth, the pursuit of justice, the explosion of creativity—cannot bloom in isolation....

Without argument the nation becomes a wasteland where nothing grows, nothing blooms, nothing is created, nothing lives.... The art of argument is the art of living.

How to Argue and Win Every Time, by Gerry Spence