I’ve written about this a little before but, when my dad was teaching me how to drive, he repeated one phrase over and over: Little adjustments, he’d say. Just little adjustments.
It was like a mantra he needed to keep himself from grabbing the wheel and returning it to the hands of a licensed driver. Little adjustments. He meant that turning wasn’t a matter of flipping the entire wheel over itself, but I’ve thought of the phrase ever since as a good piece of advice for living, not just driving a car.
There is no such thing as overhauling your life in one giant push of effort, no such thing as a smooth, consistent journey toward whatever goal you’re reaching.
You keep going. You stumble. You walk ten miles and fall 15 back.
But you keep walking, you keep learning and hurting and pushing and being alive. You keep stumbling forward, making little adjustments along the way.