In his book 9 Simple Things You Must Do To Succeed in Life and Love Henry Cloud shares the ant principle.  He discovered the principle when he was trying to decide to pursue a doctorate degree.  After several months of procrastination a friend sent him an ant farm.  Henry put it together not knowing why his friend had sent it.  He watched the ants for a while and then went on to do other things.  The next day his friend called to tell him to go look at the ant farm.  The little ants had built an underground city.  His friend shared that in order to build the city each ant had to pick up on grain of sand to move at a time.  The cumulative effort resulted in the city.

He then challenged Henry to consider that while he could not get a doctorate degree in one day he could pick up on grain of sand in that process and if he did that enough days he would achieve his goal.  So that day Henry got on line to begin getting information on schools.  The end result is that today he is Dr. Henry Cloud.

There once was a man who did not like his 60 hour a week job.  He wanted to be a writer but he just did not have time to write a book.  Applying the ant principle, he got up 30 minutes early each morning to write.  After three years he had finished his first novel.  Today John Grisham is one of the most famous authors in the world.

I try to apply the ant principle to many areas of my life including reading.  I very seldom read more than 10 minutes at a time.  I do however read consistently virtually everyday.  Let me just say the ant principle works.

So what is that dream or goal you have been putting off for so long now.  You can’t achieve it today but you can pick up that one grain of sand and if you do it enough times you will have achieved your goal!