Thousand Miles vs Two Million Steps All Start The Same Way, One Step At A Time

• By Omfit Kam
• July 3, 2016
• No Comments

I don’t care how big, hairy, and audacious the goal is, it will never be big enough.  Once we accomplish one, we want another, and another, and another, but that is the beauty of having goals in the first place, the process of getting there.  Lao Tzu said it best:

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

In a world that trains the mind to buy into distraction and misdirection, each step is important.  Like in meditation, we might indulge in thoughts about the latest and greatest, but once we notice we are in thought, we bring our attention back to the present moment.  This constant noticing of where the mind has drifted, is helping us become aware of all the distractions that keep us from the moment we are in.  Just like our steps toward the goals we wish to accomplish, so many distractions along the way.

There is approximately two million steps in a thousand miles.  If we set our attention on the two million steps (microwave attitude) we would very easily become overwhelmed, but if we focus on making the best out of each step we take, we begin to cultivate the habits that will nurture the seeds we plant along the way for every harvest to come.  Even when we “fail”, we learn.  The wealth of information, the tenacity, the will to move forward is a skill that no one is born with, but important in our two million steps.  Our spiritual practice, and practice of mindfulness helps us to see each obstacle as an opportunity to learn, instead of a reason to quit.  We breathe, and let go, breathe and let go, taking the reaction out of the equation, so that we may respond with our best foot forward.  So many times we see people find themselves reacting, and if they could have just removed themselves for a moment, they could have better equipped themselves to respond.  Maybe the argument could have been avoided, or the fight left behind, just because along the way we learned to breath, and each moment became a lesson, an opportunity, a chance to improve, one step at a time.