That was written by Lucretius the Roman poet and philosopher and aptly describes why taking small tiny steps constantly day in, day out, is the route to achieving what we aim for in life.
If you took a giant sledgehammer to a huge rock face you would be there an awfully long time before you’d break or wear anything. You would wear yourself out quicker than the rock and give up.
However, a small tiny trickle of water over time can wear away something that is so hard to break with a hammer.
Don’t wear yourself out, be committed, be patient and good things will come.
What we do now shapes our future, but we have to wait and keep doing it.
I am amazed by the number of people who have no patience to wait for the next train in one minute’s time, or wait in a queue at a shop for perhaps a few seconds before tutting, or get annoyed when someone does not move quickly enough up an escalator or walks slowly in front of them. Sometimes people can barely wait for someone to finish a sentence before they want to speak.
It’s especially amazing as what are they rushing to?
Could they be receiving their Nobel Prize and are running late for their acceptance speech?
Perhaps they are a top surgeon and are late for a life-saving heart op?
Maybe they are a firefighter late for a blaze?
Most I would hazard a guess are on the way to the shops, or to work, where they will be making a tea, chatting to colleagues and sifting through some fairly non-life threatening emails and updating Facebook.
We rush for what? Do we ever stop and say what am I rushing too and does it matter that much?
Rarely are we doing something so important it can’t wait a few moments, a few minutes, hours or even days.
The more we rush the less we achieve, the less we observe, the less we savour and enjoy. The more stressed we become and that has a long-term impact on our physical and mental wellbeing too.
Of course, we have important things to do, but create time to focus on them and spend time doing them well. Take things out of our schedules that do not serve us and do not add value.
We always have time and rushing doesn’t create more.
The best ‘art’ or work or lives are often created by the person who takes their time to enjoy, learn, apply that and focus on whatever matters to them. The best things always take time.
Philip Dodson 