“Great results can be achieved with small forces.” – Sun Tzu
This quote heavily relates to the other posts on this blog.
Oftentimes, people think that great results are only achieved using great forces. Although this is sometimes true, great results are more often achieved by the accumulation of hours and hours of smaller results. Keep in mind that this is simply how to get great results – phenomenal results require constant attention. It’s the difference between someone who’s fit and lean and a 300 pound bodybuilder at 4% body fat. In fact, phenomenal results (in bodybuilding at least) are usually from some kind of cheat that absolutely destroys your body.
Although we know phenomenal results are usually from inhuman and unnatural sources, we also understand that enough practice in anything can make you a master. What’s important is setting aside enough time to practice. We need to purposely make room to cause these small forces — we don’t practice anything by accident.
This logic also applies to our everyday lives — interacting with people, saving money, eating healthy foods, etc. Of course, saving money and eating healthy are two examples that are obvious and easy to understand. But what about interacting with others? How is that an example?
Well, people often let their emotions control their actions and reactions. They’ll get upset, angry, happy, or too excited about something, and they let it influence their decision making. Stoicism helps us to stop this from happening — it helps us keep our decision making constant and reliable. That being said, sometimes we say or do something that we didn’t mean to and we don’t even realize it. For example, maybe you say yes to something that you didn’t think about beforehand. Maybe you want to stop spending time with someone because they’re too negative, but you unwillingly tell them that you don’t mind them because you feel bad about saying otherwise. Then you end up being around someone you dislike, and they end up putting too much faith in something they shouldn’t. Of course, if we could use our words precisely and carefully, this wouldn’t be an issue. In order to do this, we first must consider how we can gently communicate — we need to find out how to use a small force to get big results.
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What do you think? What do you do to help your small forces accumulate over time? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section. Also, feel free to like this post and share it on your social media — your friends could use this information! Stay tuned for future blog posts every Monday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, and try to be the reason someone smiles today 🙂