212 Degrees
There are small degree’s of separation from getting what you want and just “trying,” from being who you want to be vs. just “trying,” from having the marriage you want or just “trying,” and even being the kind of parent or friend you want to be vs. just “trying.” A degree is a small fractional measure in time or space or literally in temperature. Did you know that water boils at 212 degrees? Wow, hot right! At boiling, water begins to create steam. Did you know that steam can create energy we can’t even fathom. A popular example is to consider steam (yes, from water) giving a locomotive the energy and ability to rumble down tracks at extremely fast speeds while carrying immense loads. Can you imagine the force and power being produced?
212 degrees is all it takes for water to boil and create the steam to create that power. But what is water at 211 degrees? It is just hot water. Most of us in our lives are striving to “move a locomotive,” we are dreaming of being the catalyst of immense power to do great things. The problem is that we are often tired, we often lose motivation around 205 degrees. We’ve put in a lot of work, we’ve tried hard to make our dreams happen or even just our goals for the week, but we haven’t seen any steam yet. So, what do we do?
212 degrees is all it takes for water to boil and create the steam to create that power. But what is water at 211 degrees? It is just hot water. Most of us in our lives are striving to “move a locomotive,” we are dreaming of being the catalyst of immense power to do great things. The problem is that we are often tired, we often lose motivation around 205 degrees. We’ve put in a lot of work, we’ve tried hard to make our dreams happen or even just our goals for the week, but we haven’t seen any steam yet. So, what do we do?
I like to imagine most of us continue to push on! But, amiss to most of our understandings, things ONLY GET HARDER THE CLOSER YOU GET, it is easy to heat up from 0-100 degrees, takes more energy to go from 100-200 degrees, but then the margin of error and effort needed for the extra 12 degrees is exponential. As we turn up the effort from 205 degrees and we make it to 210 and 211 degrees most become discouraged. "I’ll never make it, I’ll never get the train out of the station, there is NO MOVEMENT!" We never really know how far we’ve come and how close we are to getting that last degree. It takes often 1 more attempt, 1 more purpose driven action, 1 more sacrifice.
For some of you this looks like 1 more call at work, 1 more email, 1 more glass of water instead of soda, 1 more working set in the gym, 1 more veggie for the day instead of that “night time treat”. What is it for you? What can be done? We are surrounded by a lot of chances and opportunities to make that 211 degree temp turn up 1 more degree. But do we see it? And the bigger question is will you make the effort? Will you take the risk to make it happen?
1 degree is likely separating you from the boiling point of your success in life, don’t stop now.
AC
For some of you this looks like 1 more call at work, 1 more email, 1 more glass of water instead of soda, 1 more working set in the gym, 1 more veggie for the day instead of that “night time treat”. What is it for you? What can be done? We are surrounded by a lot of chances and opportunities to make that 211 degree temp turn up 1 more degree. But do we see it? And the bigger question is will you make the effort? Will you take the risk to make it happen?
1 degree is likely separating you from the boiling point of your success in life, don’t stop now.
AC
