The ABCs of Advance and Retreat

(Part 1, The Wisdom of Advance)

Anxiety will whisper

Be safe, don't try.

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Chanting its siren song of fear and acquiescent mediocrity.

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Discomfort is a molten state

ever burning cities and building seamounts at once.

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Flinging yourself into the fires of possibility (and staying put)

guarantees pain, but promises more.

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Hackers seek shallow successes free of suffering, purpose or devotion.

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Intentional grit and resilience offer

joy not through ease, but tiny increments of life-changing efforts.

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Knowledge of what you stand to

lose through vulnerable hope and earnest toil cannot be found in advance.

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Meaning must stand as a placeholder for marking gains amongst losses.

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Nevertheless, the price of stagnation is passing on any

opportunities to leave dissatisfaction behind.

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Perhaps is a hope-laden word that

questions what lies beyond sacrifice.

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Responding with patient, mindful tasks that

shorten the distance between yourself and goals may be

terrifying with warnings full of fear-warped untruths. Yet-

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Until you see the path beyond the pain, you cannot

verify the width or depth of distaste that you must

wade through to shift a reality. It is an inner leap to sign up, to mark

X in the yes box.

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You'll be without a net, but the sum of change will not, cannot be

zero.

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(Part two, The Wisdom of Retreat)

Zero-sum thinkers view

your successes only in terms of what they must lose; they see just a black

X on their status, for any

win must exact a cost.

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Virtue in a world of coldly measured worth is

uncomfortably squishy- like water, it cannot hold a shape.

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The world of unmet grievance finds

strength in the power of directed rage.

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Reasoned compromise and understanding are

questionable, weakened positions from this mindset.

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Perchance you find yourself treading water amongst sharks

or swimming in endless competitive circles,

note the exit signs that stretch both forward and back.

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Movement forward does not travel in straight

lines- it curves, twists and drops backward.

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Knowing when to step away is not

just quitting, it is finding the blind end of the maze and regrouping.

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If sacrifice comes with no long-term promise of inner peace or isn't a

hasty bridge to float from one goal to the next, then what are you

giving up?

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Find the part of yourself that lies wanting and neglected-

ease yourself away from places that poison or offer no comfort.

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Drive without a soul is like fear without ambition- they

cannot help you in this incomplete form.

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Being in forward motion through only inertia is still a prison of

anxiety.