You’re closer than you think.
After an hour or so you begin to feel fatigued and your optimism is replaced with doubt. You ask yourself, “How much longer do I have to go?” The vision of the peak is suddenly clouded with thoughts of surrender. The easy route would be to descend back down to the bottom of the mountain. However, just as you are about to turn around, a fellow hiker passes you and utters these words, “You’re closer than you think.”
Have you ever set your sights on a goal, only to feel disappointed by your lack of progress just a few months later? How many times have you given up on a goal, followed by a deep sense of regret for not “sticking it out.”
Below is an excerpt from one of the most widely recognized self-help books of all time, Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. It’s a beautiful illustration of the power of persistence.
One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat. Every person is guilty of this mistake at one time or another.
An uncle of R.U. Darby was caught by the “gold fever” in the gold-rush days, and went west to “dig and grow rich.” He had never heard that more gold has been mined from the brains of men than has ever been taken from the earth. He staked a claim and went to work with pick and shovel.
After weeks of labor, he was rewarded by the discovery of the shining ore. He needed machinery to bring the ore to the surface. Quietly, he covered up the mine, retraced his footsteps to his home in Williamsburg, Maryland, told his relatives and a few neighbors of the “strike.” They got together money for the needed machinery, had it shipped. The uncle and Darby went back to work the mine.
The first car of ore was mined, and shipped to a smelter. The returns proved they had one of the richest mines in Colorado! A few more cars of that ore would clear the debts. Then would come the big killing in profits.
Down went the drills! Up went the hopes of Darby and Uncle! Then something happened! The vein of gold ore disappeared! They had come to the end of the rainbow, and the pot of gold was no longer there! They drilled on, desperately trying to pick up the vein again — all to no avail.
Finally, they decided to quit. They sold the machinery to a junk man for a few hundred dollars, and took the train back home. The junk man called in a mining engineer to look at the mine and do a little calculating. The engineer advised that the project had failed because the owners were not familiar with “fault lines.” His calculations showed that the vein would be found just three feet from where the Darbys had stopped drilling. That is exactly where it was found!
The junk man took millions of dollars in ore from the mine, because he knew enough to seek expert counsel before giving up.
If God placed a dream in your heart and you are considering quitting, I encourage you to write these five words on a sticky note and put it in a visible place; a place that you will see every day.
YOU’RE CLOSER THAN YOU THINK!
What a great visual and story about something that we all face throughout our lives.