Today the su
n is shining, yet when I look more closely I can see fine rain. As with much of life, when you look closely things are not quite as they initially appear….
A few months back someone contacted me concerning a reference I’d made in my newsletter to Edison and the light bulb. It turns out when you look more closely at this, it too isn’t quite as it seems. Several people contributed to the process. An English physician called Sir Humphrey Davy successfully passed an electric current through platinum strips in 1801 but the light lasted only a few minutes. In 1809 Davy created the Arc lamp. In 1840 Warren de la Rue, a British scientist, placed a platinum coil in a vacuum tube and created light that lasted longer. In 1841 Frederick de Moleyns of England was given the first patent for an incandescent lamp, yet it is Joseph Wilson Swan who patented his light bulb in 1878 and Thomas Edison who are generally credited with the invention.
The reason I mention this is that, like the many drops of water, it often takes a series of events for something really great to happen. Even though those at the end of the process may get the credit, those earlier steps are often very important.
So it is with each of us. Although we may not all be inventors, every day we are involved in a range of activities with a host of different people and every day we have an impact in some way on someone or something. We can never know exactly what will happen as a result, but each of our actions, thoughts and deeds will make some kind of difference in the world. Even if we decide to lie in bed all day and do nothing, our absence will have an effect.
Quite a few people I meet at the moment are considering making changes in life such as stopping smoking, losing weight, getting fit, changing jobs. In each case we might want to wake up and find that a magic wand has just made it happen, but the reality is that it is small steps along the way that will lead to great change. A healthier lifestyle unfolds one day at a time, a new job is found through a series of actions.
Sometimes it helps to think ‘just for today I will ……..‘ Then tomorrow you can do it again ‘just for today’. If you have a bad day and things don’t go so well, that too was ‘just for today’ and tomorrow you can get right back on track.
We have electric light today because a group of people tried and persevered despite some failures or partial successes. You too can achieve your goals, you just need to do it one step at a time.
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As always, if you would like help in achieving your own goals, just give me a call, I’d be happy to help.