“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” – Winston Churchill
I’ve made it a point lately to take the stairs rather than the elevator whenever possible and I must say that I initially met the challenge I set for myself with a modicum of dread. The first few days were a little tough and the elevator button was a little tempting, but I soon found myself looking forward to the invigoration that rewards such effort.
If you set out each day to make progress in any area of your life, you’ll eventually find yourself enjoying the climb more throughly. The shift in perspective is a result of conditioning, that is, deliberate work to overcome the inertia of lethargy and the inevitable setbacks. It takes time but if you persevere you’ll tap into the experience so well described as the “joy and glory of the climb”!
Gregory Hake 
Thank you for your post Gregg. I have always thought that it is just as easy to develop “good” habits, as it is to develop “bad” ones… Why not develop the good (like taking the stairs) and then enjoy the fruits there of.
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This is one of my favorite Winston Churchill quotes, and one that has assisted me greatly over the years. It was one of the major reasons why I never fell for the instant gratification temptation but instead committed myself to the building of something significant a brick or a piece at a time. And the discoveries that the journey is everything emerged from those experiences of a step at a time. Thanks for sharing with us Gregg.
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The persistent internal compulsion to progress is central to the nature of our being. For various reasons that vital compulsion tends to become compromised by the forces of entropy, especially as the years go by. It takes deliberation and character to avoid the seeming comfort of habit, of resting on one’s laurels, or even the poisonous broth of discouragement and resentment that ensures steady decline. Embrace newness, release the past and be of a good courage!
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It’s important to always make continuous, yet subtle changes for improvement in our lives.
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Great point! I’ve had the experience. I’ve described it as going through a new door in my house and finding another room I didn’t realize I had. I’m usually surprised at the satisfying feeling of the accomplishment. There is always so much more available to us if we’d just keep going and take the next step in front of us.
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It is great to be able to look back on your life and say “I have made so much progress, yet now I realize I have so much further to go”. I suspect that this will be something that one who is making constant progress will constantly say.
As you move through life, close goals are achieved, distant goals become close goals, and new distant goals are realized.
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This I embrace will full fervor. The things that really push me forward and are the most exciting of all are things I have no concept or idea about any finality; it is the pure and simple joy of the momentum of upward progress that thrills me to my bones!
Advancement, progress, growth – and the work required in their commitment – all yield the greatest pleasures of my living. It gives me a solid reason to get up early out of bed each morning, and to put me to bed at a decent hour. It provides the capital of my true earnings, something that can never be lost nor counted in silver.
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