Backwards to go Forward
In order to discipline myself for blog writing I have decided to enlist the help of word generators and begin with the definition of them. Why? You may ask. Simple fact is I work best with the aid of a prompt. Many writers do. Some may simply be able to pick out an easy topic, but I wanted something different and thought provoking. I also wanted something to help improve my vocabulary!
My word for today’s blog is:
The definition:
Reverting to an earlier and inferior condition.
Sentence adjective example: to go back on the progress that has been made would be a retrograde step.
I’d considered myself a pretty stable person. Learning from everything I did.
I’ve been pondering over this word, and, as a tenuous character, I should be confident in believing I would never take a retrograde step in any of my decisions. I can think of one thing I have done this week alone.
I’m sure many of you will have done the same. In Fact, it’s something a designer faces all of the time, perhaps it’s where the term ‘back to the drawing board’ comes from. I can imagine, many a time, whilst they reach a certain point, something doesn’t quite work, they take steps back to move forward with different ideas. Of course, with that in mind, I begin to think about the word hindsight. This word we use for those times where, in hindsight, we would have done something differently, but we can’t. In this case any progress made, for example, driving to your destination you are hit by another car doesn't hinder your progress of course. It simply means you would have done something differently before the progress had begun. Maybe before you got to that point there was a fork in the road, two ways to get there and you had to choose. In hindsight you would have chosen the other route, of course. And you did make progress to your destination, but you there is no way of you making a retrograde step. Are you still with me?
So I consider my retrograde step this week. I’d made great progress, I think, with my self esteem. It’s something I deal with on a daily basis, as one of my previous blog posts explains, but a certain decision caused it to spiral backwards. I felt myself takE mental steps back and diminish what progress I had made. ‘Some things are sent to try us’ is a great way of explaining it all and I have to say it’s very true.
I didn't want to believe I'd ever fall back into lack of self worth. I had gained a trust for someones opinion of me. I found myself questioning it. Of course once you start to put yourself down it's hard to think about what other factors might be at play. But I realised there are two people here and it's worth considering what may have been at play with their own emotions which could have affected that trust. I think emotions are probably one of the easiest things for many people to access with which retrograde steps can be taken. I would hope, being able to view it in this way, we are able to determine what it is we need to change in order to move on once again.
Many of you may prefer to look at the synomyns for retrograde to help understand the meaning:
declining
deteriorating
inverted
lapsing
receding
reversed
sinking
slipping
worsening
backward
catabolic
contrary
When I look at this list I see so many words we associate with the above paragraph and I find myself making sentences like 'I'm sinking back into myself' and it's with this I can understand the word to more effect.
So that was the first of my word of the week, its definition and meaning. If there are any you'd like me to consider let me know! Happy reading!
