PERSPECTIVE

Remember the last time you dug a ditch 100 feet long, one foot deep?


My ditch went from a shed to a fence at the lot line. Ten minutes of digging, followed by one minute of rest. Ten digging, one resting. After about 3 repetitions of the preceding, I looked toward the fence and it seemed, if anything, to be getting further away.

Do any of your life's goals, when concentrating on them, seem to be getting further away? We're told to focus on our goals, to visualize accomplishing all we want, and to imagine how we will feel when we have what we want. When we do concentrate, focus, visualize and imagine, we drop to our knees in frustration over how far we have yet to go.

After two more repetitions in my quest to dig to the distant fence, I put down the shovel. I expelled a big sigh and out of the corner of my sweat stung eye, I caught a glimpse of the shed, my starting point, which was now further away from me than the fence was.

Lesson : Don't be discouraged about how far you have to go; look at how far you have come.