What Lao Tzu, Henry Ford, Will Smith and Albert Einstein All Have In Common
“The most difficult things in the world
must be accomplished through the easiest.
The greatest things in the world
must be accomplished through the smallest.
Therefore the Sage never attempts great things
and so accomplishes them.”
It’s easy to become overwhelmed by tasks that the mind presents as large or difficult. We can see all that needs to be done, and our minds make it seem as if we have to do it all at once. It feels almost impossible.
Instead, break everything down.
“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”
Our minds have potential for great complication, but they can thrive off of great simplicity.
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
A key to life seems to be in breaking things down into small enough pieces so that everything becomes doable. Cleaning an entire room might seem like an overbearing task, but plugging in the vacuum is super easy. Cooking a whole meal can seem like one big chore, but slicing an onion, just once, is easy.
When we break everything down, many difficult things, even beyond basic daily chores, become easier and easier.
“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t say ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.”
We are often so obsessed with end results, achievement, success, the need for the rest we can feel after accomplishment, that we can turn our daily lives into a struggle. Everything becomes a strain when action is always to get somewhere else.
Instead, let things be done for their own sake. Let your walking down the stairs be an action unto itself. Arriving at the bottom of the stairs is the by-product. Let your breathing be its own activity. Keeping the body alive is the by-product. Let every daily action you take begin to be its own entity, its own life form, and then the quality of your action begins to intensify. More quality of action means that everything is done better, less mistakes are made, and success is easier to accomplish.
Success is in the very action that you take now, not some event that comes in the future.
We are often trained to think that all the good stuff lies where the difficulty is. Really, all the good stuff lies in making the difficult stuff easy.
I hope you enjoyed this article, speak to you soon,
Adam