Rome wasn’t built in a day

"M(arcus) Agrippa, son (F) of Lucius (L), Consul (COS) for the third time (Tertium), built this."

When you’re putting in the work but the results haven’t yet come, the productive response is faith, not fear.

(Disclaimer: I’m not trying to be a Guru. The main target of these posts is myself. I’m just posting it here on the off chance that somebody else gets value from it.)

There is often a lag effect between when we start on a new endeavour and when we see results. You might get a bit of beginners luck, enough to hook you. But beyond that initial blip, there can be long periods of time where you’re not seeing progress. It is at these time when fear, doubt and finally despair (if you let it get that far) can start to creep into your psyche.

The greater the challenge you take on, the longer you may have to wait to get results. So how do you stay focused? And how do you make sure that you stay in a state of faith as opposed to fear.

At the outset I should classify faith. I know it has religious connotations, I don’t mean it in that sense, although I do think they were on to something. I could use the word belief, but it seems a bit too flimsy. Faith is more solid, and in the moments where things get difficult, that solid sense of faith is what you need. My faith comes in part from thinking things through logically. Let’s say you decide to run an experiment. You want to see if you can fill a barrel with water using a teaspoon. Now from the outset you know it is possible. But you don’t know the exact volume of the barrel, you just know that it’s big. So there is no way of knowing how long it will take. But you do know that sooner or later, if you keep going, spoon by spoon, you will fill that sucker up.

That’s how it works with achieving any (realistic) goal.

Knowing that it is a question of when not if, the next part is enjoying the process.

Given that we can’t predict how long our goals will take to achieve, it helps tremendously if you choose something that you enjoy doing or you can learn to enjoy. That way you aren’t chasing the outcome, the process of achieving the outcome is it’s own reward.

I started gym training from a young age. My high school had a gymnasium, and at lunch time a few of us would go in there and train. On some level I did want to put muscle on my skinny teenage frame, but what I found instead was far more valuable. Going to the gym evened out my mood. I was pretty anxious growing up and I always felt calm after going to the gym. An affect that would last for the rest of the day. And so especially in difficult times, it was the activity itself and the way I could shift my state by doing it that became more important than the outcome of getting ‘swole’.

The same goes for music. My parents were keen for me to learn a musical instrument. I started off on piano, but really had no connection to the music. It was pleasant, but it never gave me goosebumps. So despite some natural ability, I never really progressed. After hitting a wall sometime around the 5th grade of primary school, I switched over to a Greek instrument, bouzouki. I had grown up listening to Greek music, it was in my blood and did everything for me that good music should. As soon as I made that switch and started enjoying the process, I made progress in leaps and bounds.

A final thought, what you love the most may not always be the best career option. I think that you have to balance your talents, natural enjoyment and value to society in the activities you choose. In my case for example, I could have chosen to become a professional bouzouki player, but what realistically were the outcomes, how would this be rewarded, and if I succeeded what kind of life could I hope to enjoy?

We love what we love, but how society values and rewards that is not within our control. So if societal rewards such as money is part of what you want, then you have to consider what the market value is for what you are doing. No point being angry that Mexican basket weaving isn’t paid at $500 an hour. So you may instead want to choose something you enjoy a little less, but that is more valuable to society.

As for looking at others who have achieved great things, I think it’s important to look not just at the barrel full of water, but also imagine them sitting there year after year with a teaspoon filling it up. The process is not glamorous. But neither is it mystical. And that ironically, is a good reason to have faith.