People always say I have a lot of perseverance because I kept applying to medical school. They sometimes say the same when I talk about walking 314 miles at Vol State.

Neither fits IF you use the first part of this quote.

But both fit using the second part.

All I knew was that I was destined to be a doctor. Also I knew how to do absolutely nothing else. So This is how it went.
• I’d apply to medical school
• I’d wait for results
• I’d get rejected
• I’d be extremely upset and depressed
• I’d go find more schools to apply to.
• The cycle would be repeated.

Each cycle was pretty simple. I found schools. Then I applied. Then I waited.

Eventually I found a school that would accept me and I got in.

It took a long time but each cycle (each race per this quote) was short and simple.

Let’s look at vol state.
• I’d decide what my 12 hour goal was (we check in every 12 hours)
• Often, depending on how I felt, I’d change that goal- to something shorter like “to the next guardrail” or “the next Dollar General or gas station”.
• I’d do that distance
• I’d pick another goal and go for that.

Only once in all the times I’ve done this race did I think “oh no, there’s still 300 miles to go”, or “I can’t do this for 9 more days”. That was a big mistake. And I quickly fought those thoughts.

It was just a bunch of short races one after the other.

If you break down any project into bits and pieces, and tackle them separately, anything can be accomplished.

Pick something that’s been bugging you and try this.

Notice that this doesn’t say anything about being fully developed. It’s an “aim”, a goal. Of course we should always be trying to be better people. Part of that, though, is being happy with the process and not requiring that we become perfect in order to have some happiness.

I see this all the time. People are trying to learn, to figure out their lives and how to get better. But even when they are making progress they aren’t happy. Why? Because they haven’t reached their goal yet so they don’t think they deserve to feel happy.

Shhhh….here’s the secret they don’t know. There is no end in this goal. There is always room for more self-development. There’s only one perfect being and it’s no one you know.

I would suggest that the first aim or goal of self-development is to decide to be happy just because you’re trying to get better. There’s really no competition and no rules. So, by simply deciding you’re going to “work on yourself”, you’ve made great progress and should celebrate.

Once you decide you’re going to be happy where you are and in the present moment, the process of self-development is easier. There’s not much, if any, resistance because you are staying in the flow by being happy. Sure there’s more you want to discover but there’s plenty for you to revel in right now.

Don’t always be “wishing”. It gets you absolutely nowhere. Wishing without action is like affirmations without action. It’s disappointment and discouragement. If you wish for something, decide how important it is to you, make a plan to go for it and begin to take action.

I imagine you might be doubting this quote’s Legitimacy. If so, read it again. Then think about it.

You could have an impactful experience such as jumping out of the way of a car missing being hit by inches. But do you learn from that? Not necessarily. If you don’t think about it and how it happened, you could just as easily make the same mistake again.

But if you think about it you might see that you were trying to cross in the middle of the street and maybe around a bend where lines of sight weren’t that good.

Maybe you were sleep deprived and not able to make decisions as quickly as usual. Maybe you just shouldn’t have tried to cross on that street at all.

Who knows. There could be a ton of things that go into it. But until you reflect on the entire thing you won’t know.

What experiences have you had that ended up repeating because you didn’t reflect and learn from what happened?

Always take time to look at what you’ve experienced and see what you need to change, if anything. It’s called growth.