Honoring The Long Road to Success

There is a part of my mind that tells me that I should be able to achieve great results just by some sheer act of will power on my part. This idea of getting into the trenches and doing the hard work of the daily grind somehow has eluded me. And, yet it is this daily grind that ultimately achieves the success I'm looking for.

Yesterday I drove past a new housing development. I observed that this development took many months before any buildings were placed on it. I was reminded that it is the foundation of the homes that takes a long time to lay. A solid foundation must be in place to support the above ground structure.

Our lives are like this home. If I do not honor the long process of building a foundation I will become frustrated by my lack of process. I will start to get upset when things are not moving fast enough. I will find myself procrastinating, because if I can't do it right the first time then I quit.

I am reminded of my old "friend" perfectionism. Perfectionism tells me that I must get it right the first time. Of course, this ignores the reality of the millions of people that make tons of mistakes before going on to be great successes. Look for the biography of any successful person, and it will be riddled (if they are honest) with lots of failures. In fact, failures become these people's greatest asset.

When we succeed at something that too can be an issue. At least in my life it is. I cannot count the number of times that I have achieved a success, and then quit because I thought I didn't need to work anymore at it. This arriving at a level of excellence can actually work against us sometimes. Why would we stop working when we have some success? Is there fear that we would finally be recognized for our work?

This blog is my invitation to you and me. It is very simple. The next time you either want to start a project, or you want to quit a project remember some things. Remember that you are in exactly the right stage of your process right now. Remember that you don't have to be perfect. And, remember that nobody really achieves success overnight. Success is built upon many little blocks of successes and failures over a very long period of time. Remember the foundation of the house that takes so long to build.

You are doing great! You are a success, because you keep showing up. Imperfection does not imply failure. Failure actually becomes success when we embrace our process!