Life is full on these days. Summer is done. The lazy schedule is no more existent. Real life has come knocking on the door, and we are all answering to it.
Showing up at places, and to tasks on time day after day is hard.
But that is what the stuff of our lives are made of, no?
Like going to school everyday for 12 years gives us an education for living the adult life with some ease.
Showing up to our business day after day leads to building it, doing projects, etc. that makes us proud and earns us a living.
The analogy also works for sculpting a body. Showing up at the gym day after day, week after week, to do something, that slowly makes an impact. Showing up one day for three hours, and then, not making an appearance for weeks does nothing for our fitness.
There is no choice but to go slow and steady.
It’s the brick by brick, day by day approach that gets the work done over time. The path to making those dreams into reality.
But the day by day is not easy in the moment.
That is what makes the weekends so enticing and exciting- the mini break to go off the track, to live time more fluidly. To refresh our minds for next week, next project, next mountain to climb.
Aesop had the right idea when he wrote about the race between the hare and the tortoise. We need to scratch the surface one tiny area at a time.
No more than that.
But doing it again. And again, And again.
I have realized that is the only way to achieve anything.
This realization has slowly come to me in my 40+ years of life. And even when we know it to be true, it’s hard not to hope that one big leap will get the job done, or let the results stick forever.
The hope may work in finishing a certain project on time, but it doesn’t work for things that matter over a lifetime- health, building a career, education, relationships…these take consistent effort over time.
Not huge leaps. Not big efforts every day. But small repeated efforts.
Having that realization can make life seem like a big unending mountain in front of us to climb for all of life, and make things look hopeless.
Or it can make life easier- no more spending energy in complaining, or negotiating with oneself. But just showing up. Being creative about doing the same things, and getting on with the job of life…that’s all.
After all the years of me trying, waking up early is not a big effort anymore.
Coming to my writing is not something to be negotiated day after day.
Cooking everyday is not to be questioned with (maybe on weekends!).
Going to the gym is just a part of daily life.
Life can be a mammoth task to be endured, or joyful in its small everyday rituals of tasks and efforts.
The choice, of how we see it, is ours.
We can complain and make it seem really hard.
Or we can keep showing up with some joy, and actually have fun living this life of forward momentum.
It’s the harder path to choose and to start with.