I am like a drop of water on a rock. After drip, drip, dripping in the same place, I begin to leave a mark, and I leave my mark in many people’s hearts.
Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Rocks are tough objects and its inconceivable that a mellow drop of water would make any impact on it’s existence, but that ceases to be true with consistent effort. Drop after drop after drop can change the appearance and structure of that rock forever.
There is nothing exciting about watching a dripping faucet. Each drop of water follows another, in the same pattern, with the same speed, and the same boredom of each previous one. But there is much excitement if that dripping faucet becomes dripping waves of effort in your life. Oh, the pattern, the speed and the boring predictability will not go away, but the effort, in time, will be unbelievable.
People love an over night sensation. They love playing their six numbers and hope that luck shines upon them and their all their dreams will come true, but money, even lots of money cannot buy meaning, or purpose, or effort.
There is a great story about Pablo Picasso. It has him sitting, enjoying a cup of coffee at an outside cafe. He is being admired by a middle aged woman from some distance away. He sits and drinks and doodles. When he is done his coffee, he picks up the piece of paper on which he doodled, gets up, and is about to throw it in the garbage. The woman excitedly runs up to him and begs for the doodle, knowing who he is, and how much she could sell it for. He tells her that he wants a hundred thousand dollars for it. The woman is offended. “But I watched you. It only took you four minutes to complete it. Surely four minutes isn’t worth a hundred thousand dollars, even for a famous painter like you?” He stood and looked at the women. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence between them and then he spoke. “Ma’am. This doodle which you so much desire did not take me four minutes to make, it took me years, decades of purposeful, meaningful effort that nobody saw”. He then crumpled up his doodle and threw it in the garbage.
Things that seem so easy. Things that seem so instant usually come as a result of years and years of slow persistent dripping. So what rock are you going to spend your energy on? What dream or dreams have you neglected or haven’t purposefully followed.
Don’t get wrapped up in the excitement of the moment. Yes, enjoy that too, but set to work at who you want to be and what you want to have, one day at a time, following the same pattern, working at the same speed, consistently, persistently, trading the so called boredom for an impossible dream.
There is a reason it’s so hard to get what we want. Life tests us over and over again to make sure we are worthy of it. That rock resists our efforts, until we break though. Until we make an impact on it, and it’s even more difficult to do this with a human heart, but in the end it is far more rewarding and far more reaching than a rock.
