Once upon a time, there was a Panama Canal. This is probably not the Panama Canal you’re thinking of. This was the first Panama Canal, attempted by the French in the late 1800s.
It was the most ambitious project the world had ever seen....France had just finished the Suez Canal, the Eiffel Tower dwarfed every structure on Earth, and French engineers had earned a reputation as...rock stars who could pull off the impossible.
France boldly sent hundreds of engineers to Panama, hired tens of thousands of laborers from around the world, and started digging. Nine years and $287,000,000 later, they wrapped up operations and sailed home. The canal was nowhere near finished; the undertaking had been a complete fiasco.
“We’re all about baked goods now,” said France.
Looking back, one of the biggest things separating France from success was actually very, very tiny.
It was a mosquito.
Two species of mosquitoes, to be precise. One transmitted yellow fever; the other malaria. They both lived and reproduced in happy abundance in the swamps, jungles, homes, and hospital wards of the canal zone. Thanks to those mosquitoes, the international labor force developed a bad habit of showing up for work and immediately dying.
This was not ideal for a lot of reasons.
Even though this was originally posted in relation to novel-writing, I'm pretty sure it can be applicable to just about any other goal we strive to obtain. This has also been described to me as the "Starbucks Effect," implying that one could reach their financial goals much sooner if they didn't spend $4 on a coffee bar drink every morning.
Whether a goal is personal, financial, or artistic, it's often the little things that get in our way.
it's buying generic instead of name-brand
it's taking the stairs instead of the elevator
it's taking a few moments each day to be grateful for all we haveI guess what I'm saying is sweat the small stuff.
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