There’s an old saying that says “when humans plan, God laughs”. Yet, I believe in long-term planning. I know, it’s often just nonsense. So many things can go wrong. You can be struck by lightning. The path can lead to some other place. You can lose the ability to execute it. Things can go wrong. I get it. It can be a bad plan. The longer a plan takes, the less likely it should be to accomplish it.

But there’s a trick with long-term plans. Essentially, keep showing up. Like a drop falling over and over at the same spot until it carves the stone. Showing up changes things. That’s something we can normally do. We can manage ourselves, we can be the drop no matter if it will eventually carve the stone or not.

And while you keep showing up, you learn, you set the bar for persistence, you give an example, and you may add 0.01% to someone else’s inspiration. If you do that a hundred times, the 0.01% becomes a full unit of inspiration. Just like reverse-buying chocolate. Bring that home, eventually everyone will eat it. Don’t bring that home, who knows. Maybe nobody brings it home today.

If the goal is worthy, the world becomes a better place even if it’s not fulfilled.

Speaking of goals, despite the series of injuries, I’m still showing up to the pull-up challenge. I started taking selfies on day 18, missed some. This screenshot is also missing some. But it captures my general belief.