Labyrinth

Daily Meditation 1,106–3/17/2025

We hear about progress as always framed as a positive. While, I would say, yeah, generally progression is good, you can also progress over a cliff’s edge, and will find yourself progressing straight down into a you-shaped grave for yourself much like Wile-E-Coyote.

Again, generally progressing is pretty good. If you’re 400 pounds, eating 8000 calories of fast food and soda a day and getting <500 steps a day? Yeah — progressing to 7000 calories a day and 1000 steps is massive.

But many situations in our lives are less linear and are more like a labyrinth.

You may be moving forward but how can you be certain you’re progressing?

After all — in a maze, you could progress forward around 10+ corners and corridors before hitting a dead end. Is that actually “progress?” Now you’ve got to go all the way back and recalibrate.

Imagine you’re trying to get your boss’ job. You know he is vying for a big promotion. So, you just start doing a lot of his role. You tell him and everyone it matters to that you’re gonna take it over.

Well, he doesn’t get his promotion — in fact, his boss tells him he never should’ve applied. Now he is irate and emotional…and views you as a competitor, a Machiavellian figure trying to force him out.

Soon, you’re fired. Now you’ve got no job, have to talk to a lawyer about wrongful termination, are looking at jobs, and other nuisances.

Obviously, that’s a super complex and specific example.
But life is full of complex situations where progressing isn’t always the best choice.

In closing — remember the labyrinth. “Progress” isn’t always progress, and forward isn’t always the path to progression.