An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming.

An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward. So when life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means that it’s going to launch you into something great. So just focus, and keep aiming.
PAULO COELHO
Whenever we are on a trajectory, everything short of continuing on that trajectory feels counterproductive.
We sense we are losing, rather than gaining ground, and we are so myopic on our task at hand, that we are many times unable to really understand that a couple steps backwards is not the worst thing in the world. In fact, in some cases, it may prove to be the best thing that could ever happen.
The path to any goal of magnitude is very seldom, if ever, a straight line. In fact, if you track the path that has lead to most of the largest inventions over the last 500 years, you will discover that their inception was as circuitous and convoluted as any journey on record.
Da Vinci, for example, expended a significant portion of his life studying bird’s wings and bat’s wings, drawing every stage of the flap of the wing, and contemplating all of the engineering required to simulate this in larger scale. He built prototypes of all sizes… but he never flew. Hundreds of years later, Orville Wright was looking at the curvature of the bat’s wing in da Vinci’s illustrations and that is what finally gave way to the Wright Flyer. Further, other illustrations by da Vinci provided the guidance that gave way to the helicopter.
The path to brilliance is fraught with turmoil, conflict, blockades, denial, insult and injury. It is a hero’s journey, to be certain. Not for the shy or demure personalities.
So whatever path your life is taking, should you find yourself at that position of feeling two steps backwards to take one step forward, just envision yourself as the arrow, being drawn back against the immense pressure and force of the bowstring. In that visualization, you must recognize that in short order, you will be freed up to fly with everything you’ve got…. So do not waste that time while you are feeling drawn backwards, rather, embrace it with everything you’ve got and be fully prepared for the moment of release!
Happy Monday!
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