James Clear’s new book, Atomic Habits, suggests that mastery requires patience. The San Antonio Spurs has a quote in their locker room from Jacob Riis that reads; “When nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundred and first blow it will split in two, and I know it was not the last blow that did it – but all that had gone before.”

In our last blog article I discussed the power of tiny habit that bring big results. The problem is that it takes time for little things to add up to those BIG moments that we all seek. The gap between our effort and the results is called Latent Potential. This is the hallmark of any compounding process. The most powerful outcomes are delayed!

Our digital world has conditioned us to seek instant gratification on almost everything in life. When we do not achieve it, we are led to believe that something is wrong with the method and we need a new method. The outcome almost never leads to the goals we desire. Have you ever given up on latent potential before you get to see the true value of what you were building?
The purpose of setting goals is to win the game. The purpose of building systems is to continue playing the game. True long-term thinking is goal-less thinking. It is not about a single accomplishment. It is about the cycle of endless refinement to continuous improvement. Ultimately, it is your commitment to the process that will determine your progress.