My idea to embrace today:
“When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it, but all that had gone before.” Jacob Riis
I am at the beginning of what I hope and pray will be a personal rising from the ashes phoenix like experience. Unfortunately, in looking at all the issues that need to be addressed and the resources available to address these issues, I know it will be a tough road to travel and will take at least five (5) years to accomplish. Often I feel like the little Dutch boy trying to stop leaks in the dike. Many times there are definitely not enough fingers for all the leaks.
When things seem to be not going well and I am frustrated with the progress I am making, I like to read this quote and think about an interview I read with Greg Popovich, the coach of the San Antonio Spurs. He was talking about this quote and how he had distilled this message down to the phrase, pounding the rock. He described this philosophy as a perseverance, a belief that the game really is 48 minutes and you keep doing your job for 48 and see how it breaks.
Every day, whether things are going to way I want or not, I remind myself that I just need to keep pounding the rock because I never knew which blow which will split the rock in two.