The awkward topography of progress
This is a re-post of an article I wrote on the shape of progress in 2018 - a time that now feels so unclouded by what we have shared and lived in the years since. The sentiment remains the same: progress isn’t linear. We move ahead by going up and down, side-to-side. I’d love to know what you think:
The Ascent: Up and Down the Mountain
Up, down, down, way down, back up, oh just to the left now, all the way to the top and… yup, back down… over to the right….
Success doesn’t look like the idealistically Photoshopped version of progress that we currently celebrate. In fact, your life probably has more in common with a pinball machine being played by a hyper-active fourth grader — a series of seemingly unrelated moves that end in leveling up — than it does with a “Hooray, everything is fine!” plot from the latest Rom Com.
Life is a climb.
And climbing isn’t what it looks like in the movies, either.
Success isn’t just about making it to the top, it’s about moving forward with purpose. It’s momentum. There is always a reason to celebrate when we advance and, perhaps, even more to throw confetti for when we seemingly deviate from the course and retreat — because, duh, THERE IS NO COURSE.
Progress doesn’t own a compass — it doesn’t know if you’re heading up, down, left or right or are flying sideways in a glass elevator with some dude in a velvet purple jacket.
What DOES matter is that you give a damn, work hard and care a lot. Something not working out, no matter how hard you try? Retreat the hell out of there and get yourself in a position to attack your challenges in a new way with a stronger foot hold.
By climbing back down thousands of feet basically every time they climb upthousands of feet to a new camp, mountain climbers are able to go further. They react to their environment to decide what needs to happen next. When they retreat, they help their body to get used to the altitude before attempting the climb to the next camp with the goal of peepin’ the peak of that beautiful mountain they’ve been glued to the side of for months.
And like that imposing, majestic, rocky mountain, it is impossible to go straight to the “top” in life without backtracking to prepare yourself for what is to come.
Like those summiting the seemingly unsummitable, maybe our retreats in life are our own version of acclimatization, just with more oxygen and less frostbite.
As Alison Levine, the badass arctic explorer from this video, and one of the very few in the people world who have completed the Explorers Grand Slam, says:
“Even though you spend a heck of a lot of time climbing down, you have to remember that even though you are going technically backwards you are still making PROGRESS… And progress doesn’t go in one particular direction: sometimes you do have to go backwards in order to get to where you want to be.
Retreat to advance.
Climb down to rise up and reach your summit.
Acclimatize, get back up there to plant that flag and take that epic selfie on the mountain top of the stuff you care about.
Quick Summary:
Much like summiting Mt. Everest, progress requires much forward and backward movement
Progress doesn’t own a compass, it’s up to you to keep going and looking ahead to the big shifts you’re trying to welcome to the world
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