Today, July 1st, is an incredibly important day.

“But why?” you might ask. It’s time for your six month review: How is your year going? Are those New Year’s resolutions still nagging at you? Feeling a little bit stuck? Crushing your goals for the year?

Here’s a quick story, written by an unknown author:

There once was a man who was asleep one night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled with light and the Savior appeared to him.

The Lord told him He had a work for him to do, and showed him a large rock explaining that he was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, and for many days he toiled from sunup to sundown; his shoulder set squarely against the cold massive surface of the rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling his whole day had been spent in vain.

Seeing that the man showed signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture – placing thoughts in the man’s mind, such as “Why kill yourself over this?, you’re never going to move it!” or “Boy, you’ve been at it a long time and you haven’t even scratched the surface!” etc. giving the man the impression the task was impossible and the man was an unworthy servant because he wasn’t moving the massive stone.

These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man and he started to ease up in his efforts. “Why kill myself?” he thought. “I’ll just put in my time putting forth just the minimum of effort and that will be good enough.” And this he did or at least planned on doing until, one day, he decided to take his troubles to the Lord.

“Lord,” he said, “I have labored hard and long in Your service, putting forth all my strength to do that which You have asked of me. Yet after all this time, I have not even budged that rock even half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?”

To this the Lord responded compassionately, “My friend, when long ago I asked you to serve Me and you accepted, I told you to push against the rock with all your strength and that you have done. But never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. At least not by yourself. Your task was to push. And now you come to Me, your strength spent, thinking that you have failed, ready to quit. But is this really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled; your back sinewed and brown. Your hands are calloused from constant pressure and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your ability now far surpasses that which you used to have. Yet still, you haven’t succeeded in moving the rock; and you come to Me now with a heavy heart and your strength spent. I, my friend will move the rock. Your calling was to be obedient and push, and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom, and this you have done.”

This story has an important message about goals. Sometimes it might seem like your goals are too far out of reach, and that even though you toil day after day nothing happens. It’s kind of like climbing a super tall ladder: you aren’t even seeing glimpses of the slide at the top yet, and are putting quite a lot of work into climbing the ladder.

A little while ago, I wrote about the power of compounding. The power of compounding

This is what a compounding graph looks like. There is a long, seemingly straight line. This part of the  line represents the hard days of working and pushing through even though it seems like nothing is really happening. But after a while, the line shoots up because it has strong foundation. Massive growth can happen if you put forth the struggle and build the foundation.

Most people give up while still in the “flat” stage, so they constantly struggle and never reach the “explosive” stage of life. What kind of progress are you making on your goals? Are you in the hard part of the curve?

If you pursue your goals and climb the tall, steep ladder of the slide, the rest of life will be a nice smooth ride. So spend a little time each day struggling forward. Sometimes the results might not be what you had in mind, just like the guy above who was trying to move the rock but ended up stronger and much more muscular instead. But really, who can complain about killer muscles?

If you are currently crushing it, I would love to hear about your success!

If you are struggling, is there any way I could help you move forward?

Enjoy the holiday weekend! If you think that someone you know could be helped by this, please pass it along.