People these days are very goal-oriented, which can be a good thing in the business world, where people have to work to deadlines, but which can hold you back in your tai chi life.

Tai chi is all about working on yourself, to cultivate a progressive change over a long time, so that you will be more relaxed and more healthy and more mindful. The harder you work to achieve any of these things in a particular time-frame, it will actually hold you back.

If you think of plants growing, they don't have a deadline, they just grow as the conditions are right. It's the same with your tai chi life; if you just practice and enjoy the practising for itself, then one day you can look round and notice how far you have progressed and celebrate that.

So never worry that you may be taking longer than others, the only thing that matters is that you do practise, then everything will happen in its own good time, as you learn to relax about learning. Forget any idea of a deadline and you will allow the process to just happen naturally!