Whenever I am talking to someone who is indicating that they are ready to quit something, I always ask the following, “Are You Being Sandpapered?” In order for a piece of wood to become something beautiful like a table or door, the wood must be sandpapered. The process of sandpapering the wood is difficult, it feels awful, it takes forever, and it is exhausting. Without it, you don’t get a finished product. Without sandpaper, the wood never becomes what it was intended to be.
The same can be said for us humans. Life is the evolution from wood to table. We start in our natural state like the tree and we become a beautiful table only after we are worked on with intention, love, a lot of debate and of course sandpapering. In the moments of life where we are being sandpapered from our natural form, we often feel like we will never reach the other side. Like wood, we splinter, we are in pain, we are impatient with the length of the process and we are exhausted. We are evolving from what we use to be to what we are meant to be next. And yet, I believe that it is in these moments of being sandpapered, that most people quit. The roughness of having your bumps and lines smoothed away is often too much for most. These are the moments that separate those who achieve their dreams from those who don’t. One must evolve towards their dreams, they cannot wake and simply have them. Have you ever wondered why young adults who have been rich all their lives are often lost in the world even though anything they want can be made accessible to them? I fundamentally believe that dreams are the result of hard work and sacrifice and a journey of lessons that evolve us into better people. Having everything you want still doesn’t feel like accomplishing your dreams without the sandpaper process.
