1 Step forward!

I often used to complain that my life was 1 step forward ....2 steps back. It was truly a defeatist way to look at life. To be perfectly honest, life is not and has not been with out set backs or stumbles. However, if I am really honest, it is more like 2 steps forward 1 step back or even 3 steps forward and 2 steps back. Net result is that in the big picture , I am always moving forward. There are days when it just doesn't feel that way. There are times when I say,how did I end up back here again?When I do end up on the back side of the pendulum swing, it is never quite the same place that I had left it. It can't be. Primarily since having been there before, I have already visited that p[lace. I now have the knowledge resources and skills to deal with it . It is no longer strange,unfamiliar or foreign to me.That place has therefore been transformed,so you see I am never back in the same old place.Not only has the place been transformed, I have been as well.
I just took a phone call from a colleague on the West Coast.Mid conversation, I found myself complaining about this vendor and that vendor. I heard myself say"Geez...why do these guys make it so tough on us? Why don't they understand what we do and just let us do our job?".
That brief moment of negativity is what I continue to work on removing from my life. Yes the challenges exist. Yes, the other parties involved still will be who they will be. My response and my reaction to them is the only variable that I have any control of.The better I can become at how I show up in these conversations, the more opportunity I have to making life 2 steps forward, then 1 more forward and then 1 more.
The only way to climb a staircase is to put one foot in front of the other and head up hill!Looking back to where I came from serves little purpose. Staring at the tippy top and wondering how do I get there? Just as pointless. Looking at the next step, lifting my leg and reaching for it.....as the commercial says....priceless!