All of us face situations which seem insurmountable and gargantuan. That ambition, that goal appears in our mind as a mountain. It's imposing, almost impossible to scale. Add that to the chorus of naysayers who almost always seem to be great prophets of doom, the goal or problem seems like a hopeless cause. All perspectives to the achievement of the goal or resolution of the problem appear as 90 degree precipices.
But is it?
Jacob Riis ( 1849 - 1914) was a journalist and social reformer who, in the lates 1800s, did much to improve the lot of the poor in New York City. He shared an unusual approach in overcoming discouragement. Whenever he felt he needed a morale boost, he would visit a stonecutter. There, Riis would watch the stone cutter hammer away at a boulder. He would strike the stone for a 100 times with no results.
However, at the 101st attempt, the stone would crack. Riis reasoned that it wasn't the 101st blow that did the trick, but rather, the cumulative attempts at cracking the boulder was the fundamental reason for the resultant crack.
And so it is with life. There will be many a time when our efforts seem futile, almost as if we're on a lost cause with nothing to account for despite our most valiant efforts. That's when we must never give up but plod on.
We all will have our boulders and mountains to conquer, but every strike at that boulder and every pebble that we cart away will result in the unthinkable; the boulder will crack and the mountain will disappear.
