Something I’ve finally started to accept is that things take time. It really is true that empires are not built in a moment. The thoughts that arise within our minds to build them happen in a moment. We can see everything finished as clear as day. But the reality of the project is that it will take time.
If we can find success and excitement in the small things that eventually lead to the big things we celebrate, our daily lives will be that much better. Especially as we advance toward that desired end goal.
An idea that a lot of people get behind is going to college to complete a degree. They realize it will advance them in their career, give them a career, or just fulfill a part of them that seems void. The process usually begins with excitement. The excitement is there because the journey, initially, is something new. We have the end in mind, which is filled with victory and celebration, new job titles and a growing financial freedom. (An important piece of journeying is to in fact keep the end in mind as the great Dr. Stephen Covey reminds us in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”)
As the journey progresses, though, those thoughts of grandeur begin to fade as we’re smashed with exam dates, paper deadlines, more reading assigned than we ever thought imaginable, and the reality that this is only the first semester… This is only the first month…
Those who can endure will see things in this world that they could have never seen before.
My very good friend, Allen Norris (His YouTube channel is here), has walked by foot from Pittsburgh, PA to Los Angeles, CA. He has also walked from Pittsburgh, PA to New York City and then down to Orlando, FL. People will always ask how he did it. I’ve heard him answer them with a strikingly simple response; one step at a time.
We grasp something we see as valuable in our minds, an end we desire to hold. The steps are set before us and the rules to play are laid out. Everything we are wanting to do has likely already been accomplished, at least in some way, by someone that has gone before us. We know that it is possible. We believe it can be possible for us. We begin with the first step, and then another, and then another, and then another… (That kind of sounds like that DJ Khaled video… if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s hilarious.)
Each of these steps have adversity but not impossibility. Each step has something new and also holds revelation. The revelation will hint at you, whether or not continue on or choose something new. It is not adversity that you learn this from, rather the presence or absence of a deep peace within your heart as you continue forward or choose a diverging path. Just because it’s difficult does not mean it’s not for you. In fact if it seems REALLY difficult, it was clearly designed just for you.
How do you start something huge?
Begin.
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