Tying Things Together During These Last Days of the Easter Season - 2
We're continuing where we left off last time, with that project that had us in its grips for over three years. To be clear, it was by far the biggest and toughest project we had attempted during the decade or so of our little business's existence. So when light appeared at the end of the tunnel, just as Lent was coming to an end, we couldn't help but recall the "Lumen Christi" that would light up our Easter Season.
During Holy Week, most of the hard work was completed. At this point we were tightening up the last screws, so to speak. Then, praise God, as the Easter Season began, we were able to see, and more or less enjoy, the fruits of all that labor. ("More or less" because no system or process will run forever on its own without constant improvement. It's a bit like upgrading your technology. You enjoy the bump up in efficiency today, but know that the next upgrade lurks just around the corner.)
Never giving up helped us power through the various obstacles that threatened to derail our efforts. Even more important, though, was a conscious awareness that God's will may have had something to do with the length and intensity of the challenge. And with that awareness, and God's grace, I took a pretty good shot at abandoning my will and praying for the fortitude to unite my plan to His (whatever it might have been). Of course, my pretty good shot wasn't quite sharp enough to avoid those bouts of despondency and anxiety. Then again, I'll let you know when I attain sainthood (ahem!).
Meanwhile, in the course of resolving and finalizing this project, I came across some pearls of wisdom that I want to share now. Perhaps you'll find these quotes from a work called The Intellectual Life helpful the next time you face a particuarly intense challenge. While these are selected passages, they focus on taking on a difficult challenge and diligently pressing on in the face of any and all temptation to give up. The author here addresses tackling deep intellectual pursuits, but his advice easily translates to solving tough, complex business problems. (Emphasis added.)
"All workers bewail the moments of depression that break in on the hours of ardor and threaten to bring their results to nothing. When the disgust with work lasts long, one feels that one would rather plant cabbages than pursue a wearisome study...."
"In every work there are troublesome transitions; to make one part follow closely on another is the great difficulty in study and creation. Everything depends on the connection of ideas. One is moving forward in a straight line, and there comes a bend of which it is hard to measure the angle; one does not sense the new direction..."
"Sometimes it is good to stop for a while, when one does not see the right succession of ideas and is exposed to the grave danger of making artificial transitions. It may be that later on light will come without any seeking...."
"Reject vigorously every unjustified interruption. If you are too tired, make a deliberate pause so as to pull yourself together. Nervous exhaustion would lead you nowhere..."
"Whatever be the cause of your difficulties you must go through them without flinching, keeping your self-mastery. Each spell of work is like a race-course with a certain number of obstacles. You jump a hedge; a little farther on you come to a ditch, then a bank, and so on. You do not stop at the first hurdle, you jump it; and between the obstacles there are quiet stretches where you go ahead at a good pace. One difficulty overcome shows you how to overcome others; one effort spares you three or four; a minutes' courage carries you through a day and the hard work ends by being fruitful and joyous."
"In your life as a whole this tenacity will help to make your activity easier and easier....Experience shows that many difficulties are overcome in advance by the man wo throws himself energetically into his work, like a runner starting off with a bound. Still, there will always remain a considerable number that must be gotten over by virtue akin to constancy, patience..."
"When you feel yourself defenseless, overcome; when the road stretches out before you interminably, or when, having no doubt mistaken your direction, you have the impression of being lost, completely astray, wrapped in a thick fog, then is the time to draw on stores of energy held in reserve. Persist, stand up to the difficulty, be patient in the great sense of the word, which calls up the Passion of the Master. Ardor is easier than patience but both are necessary and success is the reward of their combination..."
"The consummation of steady constancy and patience is perseverance, which completes the work. "He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," says the Gospel..."
"To persevere is to will; he who does not persevere does not will, he only plans. He who lets go has never really held; he who ceases to love has never really loved..."
"Strengthen your will and entrust it to the Lord so that he may set His seal on it..."
"Learn then, after having decided on your task, to stick to it with resourceful inflexibility; shut out even lesser duties, and still more, of course, all infidelity to your undertaking."
I hope you find such wisdom as helpful as did I. And I pray I'll recall all this the next time I'm facing one of those daunting challenges in my business, or in any other part of my life. (Hmmm...I have the sneaking suspicion one may be lurking just around the corner, ready to pounce. I can just feel it...)
During Holy Week, most of the hard work was completed. At this point we were tightening up the last screws, so to speak. Then, praise God, as the Easter Season began, we were able to see, and more or less enjoy, the fruits of all that labor. ("More or less" because no system or process will run forever on its own without constant improvement. It's a bit like upgrading your technology. You enjoy the bump up in efficiency today, but know that the next upgrade lurks just around the corner.)
Never giving up helped us power through the various obstacles that threatened to derail our efforts. Even more important, though, was a conscious awareness that God's will may have had something to do with the length and intensity of the challenge. And with that awareness, and God's grace, I took a pretty good shot at abandoning my will and praying for the fortitude to unite my plan to His (whatever it might have been). Of course, my pretty good shot wasn't quite sharp enough to avoid those bouts of despondency and anxiety. Then again, I'll let you know when I attain sainthood (ahem!).
Meanwhile, in the course of resolving and finalizing this project, I came across some pearls of wisdom that I want to share now. Perhaps you'll find these quotes from a work called The Intellectual Life helpful the next time you face a particuarly intense challenge. While these are selected passages, they focus on taking on a difficult challenge and diligently pressing on in the face of any and all temptation to give up. The author here addresses tackling deep intellectual pursuits, but his advice easily translates to solving tough, complex business problems. (Emphasis added.)
"All workers bewail the moments of depression that break in on the hours of ardor and threaten to bring their results to nothing. When the disgust with work lasts long, one feels that one would rather plant cabbages than pursue a wearisome study...."
"In every work there are troublesome transitions; to make one part follow closely on another is the great difficulty in study and creation. Everything depends on the connection of ideas. One is moving forward in a straight line, and there comes a bend of which it is hard to measure the angle; one does not sense the new direction..."
"Sometimes it is good to stop for a while, when one does not see the right succession of ideas and is exposed to the grave danger of making artificial transitions. It may be that later on light will come without any seeking...."
"Reject vigorously every unjustified interruption. If you are too tired, make a deliberate pause so as to pull yourself together. Nervous exhaustion would lead you nowhere..."
"Whatever be the cause of your difficulties you must go through them without flinching, keeping your self-mastery. Each spell of work is like a race-course with a certain number of obstacles. You jump a hedge; a little farther on you come to a ditch, then a bank, and so on. You do not stop at the first hurdle, you jump it; and between the obstacles there are quiet stretches where you go ahead at a good pace. One difficulty overcome shows you how to overcome others; one effort spares you three or four; a minutes' courage carries you through a day and the hard work ends by being fruitful and joyous."
"In your life as a whole this tenacity will help to make your activity easier and easier....Experience shows that many difficulties are overcome in advance by the man wo throws himself energetically into his work, like a runner starting off with a bound. Still, there will always remain a considerable number that must be gotten over by virtue akin to constancy, patience..."
"When you feel yourself defenseless, overcome; when the road stretches out before you interminably, or when, having no doubt mistaken your direction, you have the impression of being lost, completely astray, wrapped in a thick fog, then is the time to draw on stores of energy held in reserve. Persist, stand up to the difficulty, be patient in the great sense of the word, which calls up the Passion of the Master. Ardor is easier than patience but both are necessary and success is the reward of their combination..."
"The consummation of steady constancy and patience is perseverance, which completes the work. "He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved," says the Gospel..."
"To persevere is to will; he who does not persevere does not will, he only plans. He who lets go has never really held; he who ceases to love has never really loved..."
"Strengthen your will and entrust it to the Lord so that he may set His seal on it..."
"Learn then, after having decided on your task, to stick to it with resourceful inflexibility; shut out even lesser duties, and still more, of course, all infidelity to your undertaking."
I hope you find such wisdom as helpful as did I. And I pray I'll recall all this the next time I'm facing one of those daunting challenges in my business, or in any other part of my life. (Hmmm...I have the sneaking suspicion one may be lurking just around the corner, ready to pounce. I can just feel it...)
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