Creating Space

One of the early insights that has shaped my life happened when I asked my dad about calculus. I don’t recall his exact words. But suddenly, I had a vision of how, in the long run, a single incident, however large, is likely to have less effect than a small input, repeated frequently.

Here’s another way to look at it. Suppose you want to write a book. Let’s say, for argument purposes, that you can write 50 words a minute - somewhere near the speed I type. So you spend an entire twenty-four hours typing full out, and you produce 72,000 words. Not bad - that’s a short book.

On the other hand, say you just slip in 15 minutes of writing every day for a month. At the same speed, that’s 22,500 words. So in four months, you’ll pass the words in that massive day of typing. And hey, it’s only 15 minutes a day. Which do you think you are more likely to do? And, once you’ve done the four months of daily typing or the twenty-four hours of massive typing, which do you think you are more likely to do again?

Or look at eating. We’re not even equipped to eat three months of calories in one day and then fast the remaining days in the quarter. Or exercise. Staying still for three months and then trying to exercise enough to make up for that time in one day doesn’t produce fitness. It creates heart attacks.

Daily practice creates habits. It’s easy to remember to do something every day. Each day leads to the next, and creates momentum. But it doesn’t have to be daily. One hour of writing every Saturday and Sunday works. Exercising three days a week maintains fitness. Weekly coffee makes a good friendship, monthly mastermind calls have built vibrant businesses, annual reunions strengthen family ties. It’s the regularity that counts - building an entire roadway through time.

I meet a lot of people who have big projects they speak wistfully of one day starting. Books, charities, new businesses, new careers, exercise programs, hobbies, relationships, education. Often what stops them is thinking they have to do a lot at once to start at all. Why not do less? Make the first step so small it’s laughably easy. Repeat it over time. It will add up.

That’s the lesson of calculus. Even the smallest fraction, continuously repeated, becomes large over time. While zero is always zero.

Which do you prefer?

So I’ve come to a calmer appreciation of that person I’d admired. I still value the qualities of confidence, commitment to a cause, and outspoken passion. I can still aspire to those, though my idol proved imperfect.

And I wish you, too, nuanced learning from your heroes.

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