One definition of diligence is careful and persistent work or effort. The key in accomplishing that which other see as impossible is the willingness to persist. Constant sustained effort is what will lead to success. Have you ever seen a stone cutter working on a bolder?
Look at a stone cutter 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 the last blow that did it, but all that had gone before. How often do we hammer away at life and not see the results, only to get discouraged and change direction? We will not know if we are going the right direction and doing the right work unless we persist to the end.
Think of the fly wheel in Good to Great. If we push and push and work to get our team pushing in the same direction with constant diligence only to quit or take a break as the wheel begins to move, it will never pick up momentum. The fly wheel requires great diligence and constant effort to start moving. It is only once the fly wheel gets spinning that it will multiple it’s efforts and spin on its own driving forward an organization.
Today we start a new week. Let us reflect on which efforts we truly wish to accomplish and commit to their pursuit with great diligence. It is not slow and steady that wins the race, but it does require steady diligence, persistence to push through that will deliver victory.
