There’s a concept I’ve been kicking around in my head for a few months that involves building the person you want to become through a mechanism similar to bricklaying. Simon Sinek, and others before him, talk about two different construction workers. One person is in it to be paid and quickly gets bored of laying brick after brick after brick. The other comes alive because he can see the beautiful building that the bricks will become and he is always moving forward.
Each day, I aim to move forward, and by doing so, my actions start building my own cathedral. Instead of lamenting about life circumstances, or giving into resistance, I practice to become better every day. I tally my wins. I count my blessings. And I make sure the bricks I lay today are moving in a forward direction.
I don’t have to look back at the bricks I’ve already laid, or the bricks I’m going to lay in the future, because I know that each day that I lay bricks with a sense of dignity and a sense urgency, is a day I’m building up. I am becoming the person I want to become, brick by brick, even if I don’t always see the results.
My mood has changed from construction worker one to construction worker two. I now see the cathedral, or house, I’m turning these bricks into. I know I have a long way to go but I also know everyday I inch a bit closer. That’s what keeps me going and it’s what keeps me from looking too far into the future. I cannot accomplish anything in all of my tomorrows, I can only accomplish things during my today.
Moving forward is building up.