If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way. Napolean Hill
I keep coming back to this one concept and I think it is profound. I am trying to get to the point where I can encapsulate the concept into a single idea that can be articulated well. The one concept is regarding the small repeatable things that lead us toward a path of greatness.
Take a look at an entire year of time. 365 days. 52 weeks. 8,760 hours. If we just go about our lives without defined purpose that time will just slip past us. It has a tendency to keep rolling on past.
When I was a child, I remember standing next to the Gunnison River fly fishing with my Grandfather. That river starts in the top of the Rockies, near Crested Butte. I was fascinated to think about a small droplet of water that fell from a snow covered pine tree to slowly trickle its way into a tributary stream and then into the flow of the Gunnison. Making its way all the way to the Colorado river and then winding its way all the way through the Southwest and eventually heading toward the ocean. That water just keeps rolling on, never stopping. Always consistent. Doing its work each and every second of every hour, of every day of every year. That river carved major canyons along the way, working for millions of years.
Time this consistency that is unrelenting. It is going to happen whether we like it or not. We spend our time for good or ill for our benefit, or our demise. So the concept that I am thinking of is how to best use this behavior of time to our advantage? I think the answer is to also develop consistency, repeatable patterns that do the work for us. Awesome physical conditioning does not happen in a single event, or one day at the Gym – it happens with a consistent behavior of performing small feats and doing them effectively every day, over and over again. This is true of almost anything. If I wanted to learn a foreign language starting right now, then my path is rather simple. Develop a routine that I could do consistently as time rolls along and in a year from now, I would be amazed at the ability that I obtained.
Every impossible, great thing we want to accomplish in life is separated by our willingness to do the small things everyday to get there. The get rich quick concept, the instant stardom, the idea of going viral has poisoned us. That same spot where I stood at the Gunnison river was owned by a rancher, who knew all too well the need to wake everyday and open the gate to let the water flood his field. Everyday with consistency he would let the stream bring water and nutrients to his field and sure enough at years end he would have the healthiest crop of Timothy Hay a horse could ever eat.
So how do you apply this to your own life. Simple. All you have to decide is what is the most important aspect of your future self you want to achieve? Then create a plan that you repeat everyday, or some other frequency. Make sure that when you do the small and simple thing everyday that you do it until you are done – not just when you are tired. Do it, get it done, repeat. In a year the results will be inspiring. You will be completely amazed at the transformation it will bring to your life. The power of time, the power of the small thing will become yours and you will be the master of any destiny that you want to achieve.
Guy Reams
55 Days Left to 1st Marathon
