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Today's
quotation:
As long as you're actively pursuing your dream
with
a practical plan, you're still achieving, even if it
feels
as though you're going nowhere fast. It's been my
experience
that at the very moment I feel like giving up,
I'm only one step
from a breakthrough. Hang on long enough
and circumstances
will change, too. Trust in yourself,
your dream and spirit.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Today's
Meditation:
Results,
results, results-- how often do we get into the habit of
thinking that results are the most important thing in our
lives? How often do we fear that we're failing at
something just because we don't see immediate and
quantifiable results of our efforts? Even when we
don't see the results of our actions, though, we still may
be making some great strides towards achieving our goals.
When
a sculptor chips off the first piece of a piece of wood or
marble, there's absolutely no visual evidence that he or
she is making any progress towards a finished
product. Even after a hundred or a thousand chips,
we may not see anything that resembles a finished
product. But the sculptor doesn't quit, and the
sculptor doesn't feel as if he or she is going
nowhere. The sculptor knows that any finished
product is the result of many such chips and that the
progress doesn't show until well into the process of
creation.
As
a teacher, I've found that one of the greatest lessons
I've learned is that of letting go of a need for
quantifiable results. When
I teach first-semester writing, for example, I know that
while I may see some progress on the parts of the students
by the end of the semester, their true growth in writing
will take place long after they leave my class. I'll
probably never see the full results of my work because it
takes time for the students to grow into it. Letting
go of the results has been one of the most important
things in my life, as I apply that concept to many other
aspects of my day-to-day life.
As
long as we're actively working towards a goal, we are
making progress. It's that simple. So don't
berate yourself if you don't see or feel results-- keep
your peace of mind in knowing that you're doing the best
you can and that things are happening-- you are making
progress-- whether you actually see it or not.
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