I have come to believe that everything we do in this life is like another step on a staircase. Every level holds a lesson… whether we are regressing, pausing, or advancing.

I have experienced all three of these movements, or lack thereof, throughout life- as we all have- and sometimes all on the same day! I can be backtracking in areas of my professional life while my health is at a standstill… and meanwhile my personal life is enjoying a breakthrough.

Sometimes a pause can feel like regression. Pauses make me feel antsy.

However, if we don’t honor the stillness (and the setbacks) we can end up pushing ourselves through the motions, and suddenly the outcome is nothing that we had hoped or expected. In fact, the result may leave us in a place where we are ultimately unhappy and unfulfilled… living at many degrees below our true potential.

For me, doing something that doesn’t feel authentic is uncomfortable… but, I can get caught up in a “false time limits” or in an “everyone expects this” frame of mind and I have realized that I am creating these expectations.

I now recognize that having “no direction” has actually guided me in the right direction… and setbacks have actually propelled me forward.

Nothing is a misstep when the lesson leads you to let go of the illusive paths and find the way to your true passions.