If You're Not Moving Forward...

As I’ve been fighting off the onslaught of work and priorities that keep coming my way, I hate to admit that I’ve fallen quite behind on my go studies. In fact, they have become practically non-existent. I think the most exposure I’ve gotten to go is flipping through the new books that have been arriving. However, that cannot even begin to amount to any noteworthy type of study.

And to be honest, it’s not so much that I don’t want to study or play. In fact, I would love nothing more than to dedicate a nice chunk of time each day to my go studies. However, since that has been nearly impossible, I’ve been wracking my brain for ways to make progress before an obscene amount of time has passed since I last studied go.

As I was walking outside this morning, a thought occurred to me, “If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backwards.” (Of course, one’s progress in go is not even remotely that linear, but you get the idea.) And though this might sound repetitive to some, once again I realized the necessity of taking steps forward. And at this point, it doesn’t even matter what direction I’m taking the step in. As long as I am making efforts to move forward, it will be more valuable than simply waiting for the perfect time for me to pick go back up the way I want to.

So to those who are also caught up in the whirlwind of the responsibilities of adult life and being independent, I challenge you to take the smallest of steps forward (even if it is as simple as doing 10 easy life and death problems a day). For me, I will return to the Jump Level Up series to provide some structure for myself.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted as I begin making my comeback.