10 years

If you are like me, then you crave instant results. For example, you go to the gym once this week and you want to have lost 5 lbs.  You are a jerk to your wife, you apologize and you want everything to be fine right there.  You come up with a good idea and you want everyone to get on board this week. We want Rome to be built in a day, and sooner if possible.

Well, much to my disliking, it turns out that life doesn’t really work that way. Pounds come off after weeks and months in the gym. Apologies sink in after hours and sometimes days.  Good ideas may take years to be recognized. And Rome, was not built in a day.

For many of us, we have grasped this in our minds. We know that building a great church or business will take more than a few meetings or a couple big sales. But we have failed to allow the truth to connect with our hearts and emotions. We want to be the exception to the rule. We think we’ll be able to  Why is this important? Its important because your emotions are the first thing that will stop you from making something great. You’ll get depressed. You’ll think you don’t have what it takes because it has taken longer than you wanted it to. You’ll question your ability. You’ll doubt your calling.  Your emotions can literally kill your ability to make something great.

You know why there are so few “great” churches, or businesses or even marriages?  Because there are so few people that are willing to put in the long term effort to make it great. I read recently that JRR Tolkien took around a decade to write his beloved (great!) classic trilogy The Lord of the Rings. it took 10 years to write it. 10 years of thinking about it, sketching, writing, rewriting, rerewriting and then writing some more. 10 years is a long time.  You know why there’s so few fiction novels that have the depth and longevity as Lord of the Rings?  It’s because so few people put in the work and effort to make it great.

Another example is a hero of mine, William Wilberforce. In his late 20s, he wanted to abolish the trans-Atlantic slave trade and ultimately slavery from the world. He lobbied, fought, and tried for 20 years before the slave trade was abolished. It was another 10+ before slavery was stopped in Great Britain.

10 years to write a book.  20+ years to win your cause.

I come back to these two examples so many times and asked myself, Do I have 20 years in me for this cause? Do I have 10 years in me to develop this book?  Do I have the endurance to see this through to the end?

If history is a good teacher, then we must recognize that what ever you are trying to build into something great, you must give yourself enough time for it to become great!  Greatness comes with hard work, with many long days, with sweat, with tears, with hours of prayer. If greatness were easy, it would not be so rare. Are you prepared to give 10 years to make it great?

Here’s one more thought, that deserves a separate post, but I’ll leave you with this question: If its not worth giving 10 years to, how great is your endeavor?