Our growth doesn’t look like a straight line. Rather, that line turns, circles, returns. As I often say figuratively, “two steps forward, one step back.” At first, that step back feels like failure, like we lost something, or like we’re undoing our progress, nut not every step back is a loss.

Some are part of the pattern. There are phases where we advance, learn, expand, push beyond what we knew. And there are phases where things slow down, where we revisit, consolidate, integrate. That’s where the foundation is built. Without it, growth stays shallow.

We tend to rush the process because we want constant movement. Constant improvement. A clean upward line. But real development is heavier than that. It needs depth, reinforcement, and time to settle.

Oftentimes, that step back isn’t there to stop us. It’s there to stabilize us. So when we move forward again, we’re not just reaching higher, we’re standing on something stronger.