10th September 2010
The drops of rain make a hole in the stone not by violence, but by oft falling
Lucretius
Success is a result of small but continuous and consistent activities systematically. It's not the long number of hours we put in by doing huge and overwhelming tasks. We don't have to work very hard, but we need to work very smart.
The problem with many of us is, we want to achieve huge improvements. We want to do major shifts in our daily routine. We want to change our habits drastically. We want to convince a person by talking to him for very long. By this we will not be effective. It's the small but continuous effort which will produce the result. You need to befriend your mind, which is like a small child! It will be threatened by big tasks. But once the mind is befriended, it can stretch itself to infinity.
If a task is mindboggling, you will not do it. If it is consistent but small, you will do it. The longest marathon starts with the first step in your garden. The biggest book is written by typing a few lines daily but regularly. Big achievements are a result of small successes. A weight lifter knows how to increase his performance gradually, but steadily.
Have you heard of how to make a frog swim in a hot water? If you throw a frog in a hot water, it will jump out. But if you put the frog in a cold water and heat the water very gradually by one degree at a time, the frog will remain comfortable even at a high temperature, since it will not realize the incremental increase in the temperature!
Over this weekend, pick up some huge task that you are neglecting due to its sheer size. Break up the same into simple steps which will take not more than five minutes per day. Do one step per day and not more than one step and notice what happens to the so called huge task!
Slow and steady and win the race!
N C Sridharan
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