Desire has a lot to do with it, but so do you.
You have to persevere, you have to insist.”
While flipping through the pages of the latest edition of Success magazine, I read that Alexander Graham Bell made the first long-distance call from New York to Chicago in 1892.
What caught my eye, however, was that sixteen years earlier the 29-year-old scientist had received a patent for the telephone. (Yes, read that again — 16 years earlier!) But it took years of continued work to improve the technology that made-long distance calls practical.
Seriously? I have to roll that around my brain some more. Sixteen years is a very long time. Don’t believe me? Try this little mathematical equation:
Take your current age.
Add 16 years.
Write down the total.
Shocking, isn’t it? Now, imagine you have a really great idea. Or an incredible dream. Or an extraordinary goal. (And I surely hope you do!)
Are you willing to stick with it for 16 years?
Or, when the disappointment comes (and you know it will), and the critics arrive (Why are they so loud?), and the world moves on (as it always does), will you move on, too? Declare it’s too hard, abandon ship and search for something new and shiny and exciting?
Moving toward a goal or pursuing a dream is dirty, messy, no one sees behind the stage work — as we will soon be reminded as we hear the stories and watch the videos of this year’s Olympic athletes.
It’s early in the morning and during the lunch break and late at night, stealing-every-available-minute-work.
It’s pressing forward and trying again when your body is aching and your mind is exhausted and you’re not certain you can even take one more step.
It’s insisting over the objections and pressing in and setting limits to protect the project and asking for more and taking the risk.
It’s embracing the work of the thing . . .
so that one day you can embrace the prize.
It’s worth it.
As Helen Keller said:
Be of good cheer. Do not think of today’s failures, but of the success that may come tomorrow.
You have set yourselves a difficult task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find joy in overcoming obstacles.
Whatever you are, I insist you hang on to your dream!
Deanna
