Today is August 18 and the Navigate the Chaos question to consider is “How often do you realize that great things are done by a series of small things brought together?”
People who navigate the chaos understand that impulse seldom creates something great. Greatness takes a long time to achieve.
Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh noted "Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not accidental, but must certainly be willed.”
In October 1882 Vincent van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother Theo and noted “For the great doesn’t happen through impulse alone, and is a succession of little things that are brought together….What is drawing? How does one get there? It’s working one’s way through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do. How can one get through that wall? — since hammering on it doesn’t help at all. In my view, one must undermine the wall and grind through it slowly and patiently. And behold, how can one remain dedicated to such a task without allowing oneself to be lured from it or distracted, unless one reflects and organizes one’s life according to principles? And it’s the same with other things as it is with artistic matters. And the great isn’t something accidental; it must be willed.”
Vincent van Gogh realized that great things are done by a series of small things brought together. Do you?