This Week’s Say

A saying my parents would tell my brothers and me if an opponent in community sports was playing unfairly, a peer in class was excluding us, or if something didn’t go our way. Simple words, too similar to each other, that as a child I might pause to decipher which word meant what before applying it to the situation at hand.

Now, their simplicity is exactly what I need in a moment’s notice to move past something not worthy of more time.

The feedback I got after submitting work internally at my first job, which at the time felt catastrophic, only to realise that I had to do the same thing again the next day, and I knew I was going to do it better and not make the same mistake twice. Onwards and upwards. It’s not personal; it just wouldn’t make sense to spend more of my mental or literal time ruminating on the previous poor result.

Of course, most of us go about life wanting to do our best in every task, albeit taking it to levels of perfectionism, but not all situations allow for levels of perceived perfection to be reached. Deadlines and resources steal away the luxury of time, so we must move onwards. Just go.

The upwards of it all will inevitably come. Be it the uptick in efficiency or the increase in quality of what’s at hand (a task, a moral dilemma, a decision to be made), it is inevitable. 

That’s not to say they come hand in hand immediately. Moving onwards is difficult, and raising our expectations to move upwards sometimes feels like self-sabotage if you’re not ready for itl. So if onwards is all you can do, let the upwards come later to lift you, but for your own sake, you’ve got to move on.