“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” – Abraham H. Maslow
“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” – Aldous Huxley
“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do.” – Bruce Lee
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.” – C. S. Lewis
“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.” – Calvin Coolidge
Everyday
Every day the decisions we make, if we like it or not, either make us better or worse. If we continue to make decisions to support the habits which keep us from growing, then we are moving farther and farther away from growth. But the smallest of decisions that move us towards growth, inch us closer and closer to becoming the version of ourselves that we want to become.
Right, Wrong, Or No Action
If out of right action, you are not going forward towards growth. Then out of inaction you are falling back. And far worse, out of wrong actions you are running back. It is truly profound to think of the ever-present choice we have each and every day for revolution. Revolution, in the sense of making a choice for drastic change. Not to directly change the world or others in it. But to change yourself. This is the one possibility of change you can be sure of waking up each and every day.
The Horse Has Been Beaten, Dead, and Buried
But we have all heard this before. I am not the first one to bring this to light, and I will not be the last. As someone may be writing in agreement this very moment. But most of the issues we face are not a result of the lack of knowledge, but the lack of doing. The idea of a bridge is only valuable when the action is taken to build it over the obstacle which halts the desired progress. A bridge built only in the mind will never be crossed.
Brick By Brick
We all reach tomorrow at the same rate. Yet by our decisions we change the rate at which we reach our better selves. Don’t get caught up in changing everything at once, and as a result change nothing. It is by the small, and persistently consistent actions, which we will look upon, as the bricks of construction that built our bridge of growth. You don’t need to have all the bricks to start, but you have to start with the first one.
Life, keep it simple and live it
Josh