This famous saying of “Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day” means so much to me. This is what my coach would say to me over and over and something that gave me some comfort and hope during my struggle, that my dreams could still be built.
But it’s really hard to be patient while your Rome is being built when you crave instant gratification and when you are a perfectionist and want everything to happen in perfect timing. It’s really, really hard to be patient on our journeys, especially while we wait for the unknown to unravel.
But it takes time. Rome took years upon years to be built. And even for you, the person who you are today – it took years to build you as well. And you are still building, still growing with every passing day.
We can try to hurry and rush the process, but can you imagine if they had tried to rush building Rome? Can you imagine how much would have fallen apart by now? The years of dedication, precision and patience led to its’ beauty today. So we can rush the process, or we can choose to be patient and trust that what we build will be beautiful and worth it.
But I will admit that I am definitely not an expert on patience, I struggle in this moment with wanting all my dreams to hurry up and happen. But I know that my Rome cannot be built overnight, because the Rome that I am building is going to take a lot of work, effort, and even frustration. But I know when it is built, it will be one of my most beautiful accomplishments.
And even once our Romes have been built, there will always be an opportunity to keep on building, to add new buildings and to update old ones. We will constantly re-evaluate, re-water our plants and our growth. That’s the thing about this journey, we are constantly striving to do better and the journey never fully comes to an end point. And your dreams for what Rome may look like can change, and that is 100% okay.
I think about how my Rome has changed, from being in college and wrapping my world around track, to now pursuing a goal of helping others. Our goals change as we change, but that doesn’t mean we have to start fresh without a foundation or without hope.
My coach told me once that, “Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I think we are finally growing some trees”. A foundation was being built. Be proud of the foundation you have, no matter what it is. If you have an idea and you told someone about it and you are committing yourself to seeing this idea through, give yourself a pat on the back. If you believe in yourself to reach your dreams, give yourself two pats. If you are reading this blog post and have no idea what your Rome looks like but really want to find out, pat yourself on the back too.
Whatever you are doing right now, be proud of yourself. You are closer than you were yesterday to your goal and you deserve to be celebrated.
Keep on going, your Rome is waiting for you and I can guarantee, it is going to be beautiful.
Xo,