Brick by Brick, Step by Step

In the last couple of weeks, my husband Doug and I laid 1300 bricks in our front yard as part of our landscaping project. 1300 bricks weigh about 9000 pounds and we handled each brick three or more times. That’s a lot of weight lifting!

We were amazed how easily and effortlessly we handled so much weight in a day. One day we laid 700 bricks, each weighing 6 pounds and handled them four times for a total of 16,800 pounds. This means we each lifted 8,400 pounds that day, which is a little over 4 tons each. Unfathomable!

It would have been impossible for us to lift 4 tons at one time, but brick by brick it was possible. When I shared this story with a friend, she said, “Now you know how the Great Wall was built.” Great things are created step by step.

The same is true of any project in life, including making an improvement in a relationship with someone you love. When things aren’t going the way we want with our child or a loved one, we always want it resolved immediately.

We feel we can’t put up with it another minute, and we push things and try to make changes happen quickly. We want our child or ourselves to change our behavior patterns immediately, and we become frustrated and irritated when we see the old behavior patterns appear after we thought we had them licked.

Small, seemingly insignificant steps forward create massive achievements, and it’s really the only way this happens. Look for these small steps and celebrate your child’s or your own forward movement. Whenever you criticize for imperfection, you slow down the process forward, if not halting it completely.

When you find yourself feeling impatient with someone or something in your life not changing quickly enough, think of the Great Wall or of Doug and I lifting over 4 tons in eight hours. Remind yourself how significant change occurs. It’s brick by brick and step by step.