I stopped at my sister’s house on the way home from TAC Indiana and walked straight into a collection of old bows from the early days of building my archery skills, or lack thereof. For whatever reason, they each took me back to the skill level I had during those eras.
I wanted to be “good” at archery, but was so far from it at the start. Each bow was from a moment when someone new influenced my archery technique, bow setup, education, and mindset. They were snapshots of my timeline and how it’s had moments of ups and downs. The best reminder is that they are proof that it kept going.
These were the baby steps that led me all the way to where we are at right now with the Nock On Archery community. CONTINUALLY LEARNING!
There were times when my form and technique progressed quickly, but there were also times when they just crawled. There was equipment that limited archers at times, but then innovations would whip people forward. There was always progression, but never at the same pace.
These bows were from when I was just starting out, knowing nothing, figuring it all out as I went. One was a vintage PSE, where I had started with my first bow of my own. Then there was an old Hoyt that was top-notch at the time, proof of when I started chasing accuracy as much as animals. Then, the last of them: a mint Mathews MQ32! This one I’d built by hand for my sister, inscribed, “To my #2 fan.” (My mom always argued she was the #1 fan, so I went with it.)
The Mathews reminded me of when I was about to build myself up and have influence on someone new, just like my mentors had on me with the earlier models.
Standing in that basement, surrounded by those relics, motivated me for your mindset for the week! I remembered a quote from Confucius: “It doesn’t matter how slowly you go, as long as you never stop.”
The road to building something great isn’t always four-wheel high. Sometimes you put it in four-wheel low and crawl through the mudholes, inch by inch. The pace doesn’t matter. Stopping does.
The journey will be the best memory of this archery adventure, I promise you. If you are on top of your game, that’s awesome. Keep moving forward.
If you are in a bit of a slump right now, don’t worry. I promise you can get through it as long as you KEEP MOVING FORWARD.
NEVER STOP sending it downrange!
