Musings 
No Comments Sponge Theory of Progress
Imagine a dried sponge. It is hard, stiff, not flexible – very few uses. Add water. It becomes soft and pliable – very useful.
How might this dry sponge compare to a person who by practice and process refuses or avoids soaking in new information, new ideas? Does he/she become hard and inflexible? Compare him/her to a person that readily and continually seeks new information and collects new ideas.
What they do next determines their relative usefulness. Even a wet pliable sponge that is left idle, unused, serves little purpose. Similarly a person with ample knowledge and ideas who does not share or put them into action also serves little purpose to self or others.
Purpose is potentiated when knowledge and ideas are acted on. Like grabbing a wet sponge to clear a surface, sharing and taking action based on one’s knowledge and ideas creates opportunities for clearing, expanding, and progressing for self and others.
As we have a great potential to learn more and imagine more, our first responsibility is to do so. Our second, and most important responsibility, is ‘to do’ – take the new-found knowledge and act on it. Start on an intended project – progress on a started project.
My experience is that progress is its own reward. The end result often is less energizing and less satisfying that the journey toward it.
Intention is the Key. Action is the Answer.
