As long as you keep moving forward, you will surely reach your goal.

Forward includes sideways, and it includes slow. Anyone walking a long trail knows the day spent losing altitude in what looks like the wrong direction, because that is where the pass is, and it counts, because the alternative was standing still on a ridge.

Progress in a hard stretch resembles that far more than it resembles a straight line. What matters is the sum, not the elegance of the route. Nothing checks how you got there when you arrive.