Rome wasn’t built in a day. Actually, it has taken 2773 years’ worth of days to build the city we know as Rome. And to this day, that beat goes on…
Taken in isolation, though, most of the days between now and April 21st 753 BCE (the commonly agreed-upon date of Rome’s founding) were largely uneventful. Some days, bricks were laid. Some days, games were played. Every now and then, some big, important event would happen. But most days were like most other days – seemingly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
And yet they weren’t inconsequential at all, were they? Because when you add them all together, you get Rome.
It’s the same way that – though we might not realise it – you and I, and the rest of the planet, are building the future with our actions. It’s simple, Newtonian cause and effect – what we do today informs what we see tomorrow. And I’m not talking big, grand, sweeping gestures. I’m talking about the little things that you don’t even consider to be actions. Every single thing you do becomes an ingredient in the recipe of your future.
And if you want to see a particular kind of future, you need to plant the seeds for it with a particular kind of action.
I’m easily overwhelmed, so that kind of thinking hits me like a ton of bricks. Who am I to try to shape the future? I’m just one person out of seven billion. What chance do I have? Why bother trying, if my efforts to do so might be wasted?
Well, if you have the same reaction as I do, I have an answer to that:
Isn’t it better to try, on the off-chance that it actually works, than to not try and always wonder?