I heard a businessman quote a line from Through the Looking-Glass, the Alice in Wonderland sequel, a while back:⁣ ⁣ "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"⁣ ⁣ I didn't get it at first. What made it click for me was picturing a down escalator.⁣ ⁣ If you want to stay in the middle, you have to keep walking just to hold your place. If you want to get higher, you have to walk twice as fast. And if you stand still, you end up at the bottom.⁣ ⁣ I think life works the same way.⁣ ⁣ Wealth takes effort just to maintain. Getting ahead takes twice that. Do nothing, and it slowly shrinks.⁣ ⁣ Health is the same. Staying healthy takes work, being healthier than average takes double, and doing nothing means it declines.⁣ ⁣ Relationships too. Keeping good ones takes effort, building more takes twice as much, and if you stop showing up, you end up alone.⁣ ⁣ What stuck with me is that complacency doesn't really exist on an escalator. What you have today might not be there tomorrow, so learning to manage and maintain it is part of the work.⁣ ⁣ It came back to me today on the walk home from the gym. Good reminder for a Saturday.