A Study In Patience, Persistence, And Perspiration

byFKelso

3.5K followers

2 years ago

In this blog, I am plagiarizing from myself. This story in part came from a script from one of my "Alaska Success Stories" videos. I did a series of them for my MMO website, and they now live on my "Alaska Mystique" website.

The picture, by the way, is random. I searched out a couple pictures of my cabin and took photos of them. They turned out terrible! Therefore, couldn't use them.

When I moved to Spruce Island and built a cabin on my beach, I started with an undeveloped piece of land. As you will see in this story, mundane chores could become major challenges until I figured out a way to deal with them.

I proved the truth of this Napoleon Hill quote: "Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." Keep that quote in mind as I tell you about my system for gathering water.

For the first 15 years I lived on my homestead, my water hauling system involved up to six five-gallon plastic buckets. These I filled, two at a time, and propelled them up from the creek by my two legs and two arms. At the creek, I used a generous bowl-shaped container with a spout to fill the buckets.

My cabin stood on a little rise, falling away to lower ground on either side. An ample stream wound its way to the ocean on one side of the rise. A wide bend in the stream before it reached the beach lay far enough from the ocean so salt water never came up that far.

Here, from a deep hole behind that last long loop toward the ocean, I scooped clear, salt-free water for my buckets. Sometimes in winter we'd have to chop a hole in the ice, but the water was always there.

I'd fill my buckets, but then hauling them up that little rise was a challenge. I'd muscle them to the top, and then would have to stop for a rest.

I often joked that I thought my arms must be getting longer from carrying those buckets. Now I could be considered a "two-bucket woman," an Alaskan status symbol.

Once up the hill, I'd exert another push of energy to get them to the back porch and in my kitchen door.

Success! Once inside, I carried them, one at a time, to the open maw of a very large plastic garbage can, and poured them inside.

When people later asked me if I had running water at my homestead, I replied, "Oh, yes. It runs by in the creek and I run down and get it."

This quote from Anthony Robbins sums up the situation well: "There is a powerful, driving force inside every human being that, once unleashed, can make any vision, dream, or desire a reality."

I've proved the truth of Mr. Robbins' quote by my Spruce Island life. I suggest we use that same driving force to build our business to the success we seek.