He only is advancing in life whose heart is getting softer, whose blood warmer, whose brain quicker, whose spirit is entering into living peace.

Progress in a life is not measured by position or accumulation but by whether you are becoming kinder, more alive, sharper and more settled. Those four can move the wrong way while everything external improves, and often do, since hardening is what many careers quietly reward. A person can be advancing by every visible measure and going backwards by this one.

Ask which of those is moving in the right direction for you at the moment and which is not. Pick the one that has gone wrong and give it something concrete: time with people who soften you, rest, curiosity. The external measures will keep for a year.