don’t know what took us so long…let’s talk about Rome.
One brick at a time, Emperor Hadrian is credited with saying something along the lines of, “brick by brick my citizens, brick by brick.” The direct quote actually comes from the film Seabiscuit, but by most accounts, Hadrian said something of the sort in the same context.
More than a century later, in 64 A.D., Nero was emperor when the Great Fire of Rome raged for 9 days and engulphed three quarters of the city.
The rug gets swept out from time to time.
And no matter your position, resting on your laurels doesn’t always make for a soft landing.
Rome wasn’t built in a day. And just like Rome, anything we endeavor to create is going to take time and energy to pull together.
People don’t get in shape in a day either.
You don’t sprout an ab muscle by thinking about it.
People don’t go couch-to-marathon over a weekend…I mean, you could, but you’d walk like you’d been hit by a truck for a while.
My point is fire happens.
In all the work it takes to make something, fire does destroy in a blink. And left unchecked, it will leave nothing but rubble.
Building sustainable habits enables us to keep building, even through setbacks, so that we aren’t losing ground even as we try to crawl forward.
Pay attention to what you feed your ambition and how you try to cut corners.
You can’t take a treadmill out on a road race.
Switchbacks are an outside runner’s game.
When it comes to your creativity, AI isn’t going take the edge off.
Flexing your ability for critical thought is a use-it-or-lose-it fundamental practice.
Life is not harder for us than it was for anyone else.
It isn’t.
Life is just hard, and the only first-hand account we truly understand is our own.
Being laissez-faire about it makes for poor company.
Complacency is never a good thing.
Doing something every single day may seem trivial, but over the course of a month you have substance to show for it.
Over the course of a year, it’s impressive.
There is always room for improvement, but if you don’t start somewhere, you’re not measuring your dreams against anything of substance.