The hard thing about milking cows is that they never stay milked. You gotta do it each and every day; no days off. Life and excellence are very much the same. Success, good parenting, staying fit, eating right, staying positive and forward thinking, you name it: all require consistent, persistent effort. Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

All too often we have an unrealistic expectation that around the next corner, with the next promotion, with a bigger house or a newer car, life will in some way magically alter and the daily woes will disappear. Sorry! Life is life and problems are a natural part of life. As the Zen saying goes: “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water; after enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”

Closing Quotes:

“It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.” – Albert Einstein

“Making your mark on the world is hard. If it were easy, everybody would do it. But it’s not. It takes patience, it takes commitment, and it comes with plenty of failure along the way. The real test is not whether you avoid this failure, because you won’t. It’s whether you let it harden or shame you into inaction, or whether you learn from it; whether you choose to persevere.” – Barack Obama

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.”  – Calvin Coolidge

As always, I share what I most want and need to learn. – Nathan S. Collier