The Purpose of the Calendar

Have you ever imagined a world without a calendar? (surprisingly, I have. It's a strange world to live in)

Luckily for us, we have a calendar. I can look up the correct date, meet up with appointments and deadlines, and so on.

Whichever way we use the calendar,
There is only one truth about them. They help us measure.

If you must succeed, then you need to embrace your calendar.

But the calendar is more than just numbers. There are repetitive patterns in them. Patterns that reveal their purposes and patterns we can learn from.

Let's look at those repetitive patterns and how it applies to our daily lives.

Pattern Number One:

There are 365 days in a year. We do not have different names for each day. Unfortunately, there are only seven names to go round. Seven names not sufficient for 365 days.

The only strategy the calendar could adopt is to repeat each names 52 times.

Purpose Number One:

The calendar intends that we repeatedly perform certain behaviors on Mondays, Tuesdays, ...

It tells us we do not need to act on 365 new ideas to be successful. We only need few ideas we can consistently hold on to for us to succeed.

We do not need 365 new strategies to work on our goals, we only need few strategies we can stick to consistently.

High schools and colleges adopt this method. The timetable is set for a week while teachers and students follow the schedule week after week.

If you have a goal that is important to you, set a schedule for it and stick to it consistently.

Pattern Number Two:

There are 365 days in a year but the calendar does not count from 1 to 365. Rather, it counts from 1 to 31 (at most). Surprisingly, it does this twelve times and yet it doesn't seem to have counted from 1 to 365

Purpose Number Two:

The calendar tells us - If you have a big goal, as big as 365 days, you can only achieve this goal if you repeatedly count 31 days.

No matter how big your goals are, you can achieve them if you break them into smaller goals.

You do not need to write a book in 365 days. You only need to write an article today.

You do not need to influence a crowd of 365 people. You only need to influence the one person you come in contact with today.

Pattern Number Three:

The goal of the Calendar is to count from 1 to 365. Yet the only way it chooses to achieve this goal is to count in seconds. The Calendar counts in seconds. It's the seconds that does the actual counting. The minutes, hours, days, weeks, months are just records. The seconds does the real job.

Purpose Number Three:

No matter how small your decisions or choices are, they matter on the long run. Who you are now is as a result of the little choices you made in the past. Who you'll be tomorrow will be as a result of the small choices you make today. The same goes for next week, next month and next year.

Funny enough, you do not have to take big steps to become great. You only have to take small steps repeatedly. It only takes slow forward steps to get to greatness.