Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over!

Even if you are on the right track: We’ve got to keep moving and adapting in life. Our job is not over when we reach success. Instead, it is only in continuous progress that we will see lasting success. It is the same tortoise and hare story. The moment, we decide to take our eyes off the goal – more obstacles creep up. Obstacles become these scary things that magically appear when we move astray.

Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there

– Will Rodgers

This also makes us debate about perfection vs continuous progress. Progress helps us keep moving forward. Stillness, inaction and even laziness act as the biggest roadblocks to our success. This quote by Will Rodgers is a constant reminder about keeping our focus on our goals and keep moving forward with life.

Even if you’re on the right track you’ll get run over if you just sit there

Continued success is hard. I agree though that decision-making is the hardest challenge. It consumes time and makes us consider various possibilities including facing failure. However, once we move further, we will see small successes, and distractions on our way. This quote is telling us to remember that these distractions can ruin our progress. We ought to celebrate these successes but not lose sight of the wider goal. You snooze, you lose right?

So, the moment we are on the right track, the first thing to do is review if it is still leading us to success. We may even find out if there’s a way to succeed even faster. The only time we can rest is after we’ve achieved our goal. In the end, no one will ask us how close we were to achieving something. It doesn’t even matter how forward you are. The goal is achieved only after the outcome is realised.

Even if you are in the right track: Things can and will go wrong

• There are patterns of failure just like patterns of success. Even if we are not able to observe it clearly, people close to us can always help by pointing it out.
• It is rather natural, isn’t it? Most often we are given advice to stay on the right track and things will magically work out. Let’s be a bit more realistic- things can go wrong and will do unless we start taking more control of them.

Failure is not a singular event – it leaves clues behind. If something is not working out, there are signals of things going wrong. We usually wait till a tipping point to give us an indication that it was all wrong in the first place.

Sure, we cannot always connect the dots right from the first instance. This is where a journal of things working for and against you can help.

Retrospect is a wonderful reflection mechanism and also feedback.

Listening to Feedback

We talk about this in an agile framework where we constantly look for continuous improvements. This involves us looking through the recent past – discussing what went right or wrong. It is never a blame exercise but an opportunity to be open and honest about feedback.

It might make us feel better if there are no problems around us. But, that’s pure naivety if we don’t accept what’s around us. True knowledge is something which can either give us the edge or prepare us in the right direction. None of these will magically work themselves out.

With that knowledge in mind, pertinent questions to ask are:

• What are your sources of feedback?
• Is your feedback and subsequent decisions backed by data or is it mere gut feeling?
• If it is just gut feeling – can you find a way to validate it before jumping into actions. Gut can sometimes send us in a wrong direction altogether.
• How often do you get this feedback?

Most importantly, this quote is about continually improving and enhancing our chances of success in our direction. Sure, right direction is absolutely important, but that alone can’t do much without being backed by adequate actions.