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Health & Fitness

Today's Subject...Forward Motion

Making changes and feeling good about it – my justification for forgiving and forgetting.

If you got into your car, turned the key, put the shift into drive and hit the pedal and nothing happened, what would you do?  Probably be confused at the fact that the car was not moving forward.

Everything moves.

We as human beings are creatures of motion. We are not designed to be in one place for too long. Our culture has gotten so stagnant that we have to remind each other to literally move our bodies for 10-30 minutes a day.

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So if we are destined to move forward, why do we resist change?            

When thinking of forward motion in terms of relationships with co-workers, friends, boyfriends, or our kids there is an unspoken pressure to continuously progress. This can be true of the co-worker who pushes to keep the meeting on track or the crazy girlfriend that is nagging her boyfriend to propose.

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Progression in its truest form is using past experiences as a foundation in life learning and applying those lessons to future possibilities. One cannot allow the past to interfere, but rather guide future decisions and enable forward motion to happen naturally. Moving forward is natural right?

Relationships evolve to grow closer. Take for example my sister and I. My sister and I really didn’t get along when we were younger. We fought consistently, said awful, hurtful things to one another (I remember once telling her I wish she had AIDS, before I even knew what AIDS was-who says that to someone they love? An uneducated 10 year old, that’s who) and the silent treatment was a common thing with us.

Today, she is one of my best friends. Over the years we realized that sisters are destined to fight, we can eliminate the personal feelings from our past quarrels. Our relationship has grown so much closer as we got older.

So if we are determined to move forward why are some of these changes so scary? It’s the fear of the unknown, fear of loss or overall uncertainty…I am not sure.

Sometimes forward motion means relationships can run their course and the two parties go separate ways. The girlfriend that wants her boyfriend to propose might truly be ready for the idea of marriage but putting pressure on her boyfriend to move forward in taking that step might only push that boyfriend further away from proposing. Such irony. The desire to progress to the next step has now jeopardized that girlfriend’s potential of ever moving forward with her mate.

Forward motion can have an effect on friendships too. If we ask our parents how many friends from their childhood they still talk to, I bet the answer would be few. I suppose the term “Best Friends Forever” is conditional. Those pacts in elementary school should have gone more like this, “we will be friends forever unless/until…” doesn’t that sound more accurate?

Life happens, forward motion happens; careers, families, significant others and life decisions get in the way of the “forever” part. That’s ok. Just as such, that same forward motion brings new people into our lives that grow to love who we are now.

Think about the first day of college, or making a transition to a new career, moving to a new state, getting married, having a child. These steps require moving forward with some uncertainty, we do it anyways to assist in our personal and professional development.

Forward motion is positive, if that ultimately means we are growing in our individuality and evolving into better, stronger, wiser human beings who make better choices. Moving forward gets us to where we are meant to be, regardless of the speed we are moving.

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