The Sorites paradox tackles the question of how insignificant individual actions eventually amount to a noticeable difference. Separately, Sisyphus was doomed to futilely roll his boulder uphill, with no amount of effort ever completing his task. In low moments I feel that life is Sisyphean and can despair of trying, unable to appreciate how even small steps add up over time.

Tomorrow, a friend is embarking on his #100dayproject and will be learning to play Chopin’s Nocturne no. 8 in D flat Major on the piano. You can read his blog entry and watch him tinkling the ivories on Twitch through the month, too! A time-boxed challenge with a discreet task gives good odds for completion and I really look forward to seeing his progress.

I’ve been feeling I’d like to do something but haven’t known what, then while meditating today a thought kept coming back to me. How do I beat that Sisyphean feeling? Not for a particular task, but for any task? How can I get a sense that I’m making progress, or a sense of the progress that could be made by small, regular contributions?

My #100daychallenge will be a visualisation project. I’ll create a way to look ahead and feel it’s worth pushing the boulder. Again and again.