The Whole Loaf

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. – Putarch

I read a novel where a woman was wondering if she should accept the nomination as vice presidential candidate, since the presidential candidate was offering her only some of what she wanted for women’s rights. A wise old woman told her to take the job. She said that you take the half the loaf and then another slice and another slice and before the other person knows it, you’ve got the whole loaf. That’s perseverance.

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Someone ate a bicycle like that. It took him something like a year, but he did it. Is that your aspiration? To eat a bicycle? You can do it. Take one bite first. To make a million dollars? You can do it. Make one thousand dollars first. To write a novel? You can do it. Write one page first.

And then you do it again. You take another bite. You make another thousand. You write another page. And then you do it again. And again. And again. And if you lose the money or your computer eats your novel or whatever tragedy befalls you, you make a thousand dollars, you write one page, and you do it all again. You persevere. Because that’s what it takes to achieve your goals – little bits over and over again.