Just a Drop in the Bucket

Categories: Uncategorized Jul 13, 2013

Have you ever heard the phrase, “It’s just a drop in the bucket.”? Where I am from, people use this phrase to indicate that something is small and seemingly insignificant. Like say you owe 1 million dollars to the bank. Giving the bank $10 towards that debt would just be a drop in the bucket. It might not seem like you were any closer to paying off your debt. Though, you would be.
Drops in the bucket, small as they seem, can eventually fill the bucket – no matter how large the bucket is. Every single itty-bitty drop adds up. One drop adds to another, to another and to another. The only thing that would keep the drops from adding up and filling the bucket would be to stop dropping, to stop making deposits.

What in the blue blazes am I getting at? Two things:
Don’t underestimate the little things.
Keep making deposits no matter how fruitless they may seem.

For an example of this, let’s look at rolling around on the floor, a reset from Original Strength and Becoming Bulletproof. Rolling seems “little” in the grand scheme of movements that you think you ought to do, or want to do. It seems insignificant. Especially if you have a huge goal or desire like being a great runner or even a strongman competitor.

Rolling, spending 2 minutes on the floor, every day is just a drop in the bucket for either of those goals. It doesn’t even seem like it has anything to do with either of those goals. But, it does. Rolling can, and will, make you a better runner – a powerful runner. It helps build reflexive rotational strength – it is reflexive rotational strength. Rolling allows the body to withstand and take advantage of the forces that running generates. Rolling, which is so easy a baby could do it, allows the body to safely transfer forces of up to 10 times your body weight when you perform something like running sprints. Wow! Rolling, that simple drop in the bucket, allows the body to produce power and force – safely and efficiently.
Same thing goes for a strongman competitor. Something as seemingly insignificant as rolling can tie the body together and allow a person to lift 3 to 4 times their bodyweight and carry it for 100 yards. Rolling lays the foundation for strength: One roll at a time. Done day in and day out, rolling can add power and strength to the “strongman” – safely.

Do you see what I mean? Something like rolling – something seemingly useless, insignificant, childish – if done regularly and consistently, can fill a bucket until it overflows. It is often the things that are small that make the biggest differences. Small movements, small gestures, small acts of kindness, small leaps of faith – they are small, but they fill buckets, they tip the scales, and they move mountains.

The point of this is to stay the course. Whatever you are seeking, whatever you are training for, or living for; keep at it. Don’t stop and don’t dismiss the things that you think can never add up. Strength comes from the art, the discipline, of faithfully putting drops in the bucket. Add little deposits of action, little drops of faith, every time you get the chance. Eventually you will fill up your bucket. Eventually you will be as strong and powerful as the waterfall that overflows from your bucket.

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