Things That Take A Long Time (10 examples on the power of time)
“Good things take time, great things take a little longer.”
Let’s set aside our search for swiftness and explore some amazing things that take a long time.
My hope for this post is to inspire patience. And to realize the epic power of simply showing up and laying one proverbial brick at a time. It’s simple, insulting, even trite — but it works.
So let’s do this!
Table of Contents Show
Stuff That Takes A While to Do vs. Happen
Real quick, we need to do some semantic housekeeping. There’s a difference between things that take a long time to do vs. things that take a long time to happen.
Things that take a while to do include stuff like:
Writing a thesis
Writing 100 blog posts
Building a home
Traveling the world
This post focuses on things that take a while to happen.
10 Things That Take a While to Happen
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
1. Compound Interest
Compound interest is the exponential effect of interest on some principal amount. It’s used in finance stuff a lot, like with investing in stocks.
But it also happens with skill acquisition.
Over time, as you learn new things and your beautiful brains gets bigger and more wrinkly, your knowledge compounds.
This is probably the best image showing the power of compounding:
So when motivation runs dry, remember to stay patient. Compounding takes time, but simply showing up and improving has a real impact (eventually).
2. Wisdom
The older I get, the more I realize how wrong I was.
Even though I used to swear I had it all figured out — that I’d found the ultimate truths and had all the right perspectives.
Now I’m constantly reshaping my view of reality as I learn and test new things with an open mind.
I don’t know what wisdom is, or what it feels like. And I definitely don’t have all the answers. But I’m pretty sure it takes a long time to reach.
So in the meantime, here’s my current philosophy for learning as much as possible:
Listen more than you speak
Give more than you take
Do more than you say
3. Talent + Expertise
Let’s squash a common myth.
You can learn any new skill and become better at anything. Being “born with it” doesn’t mean anything.
The science of neuroplasticity (and countless anecdotes) prove this. Talent and expertise are up to you, not genetics. You probably have natural proclivities for stuff, but practice is still required.
Because regardless of a leg up, reaching expertise takes a long time.
A long time.
It’s why you trust someone with 10 years experience versus someone who’s just started.
4. Evolution + Geological Processes
Evolution takes a while. So does building a mountain.
Then again, there are examples of quick evolution (like this one) or rapid environmental shifts (like landslides).
But let’s just agree that natural processes and group-wide genetic changes generally take a while.
5. New Habits
Building new habits usually takes time. Not as long as some of the other stuff on this list, but still some time.
New habits can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days to form, with an average of 66 days. It’s not easy to break old habits and build new ones, but it makes things easier.
Here are some things that help me the most:
Find your keystone habit
Make small changes, not big leaps — it’s more sustainable
Focus on building new habits, not breaking old ones
Forming new behaviors takes work and intention — and yes, time too. But it’s worth it!
6. Reaching (your) Success
Reaching success takes a while. And it means something different for everyone (i.e., it’s definitely not just monetary).
Of course, some people reach personal success and happiness earlier than others, but it’s usually a dynamic, long-term process of self awareness and goal-setting with various ups and downs.
I suppose this is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to love the process and to live in the present moment.
But I digress…
There are many examples of the long-term time horizon on success, but here are just a few off the top of my head:
Building a brand
Creating a successful business
Creating wealth
Reaching your long-term goals
7. Becoming Fluent In A Second Language
Learning a new language is one of the most rewarding skills. But it’s also pretty difficult.
There are definitely ways to speed things up — like traveling or living abroad.
But becoming fluent in a language (when you’re starting from scratch) is going to take a long time.
It’s different for everyone and the more you learn, the better you get. But full fluency is one of those coveted goals that can take a pretty long time.
(but it’s totally worth it!)
8. Quality
First steps and iterations are rarely the best versions. This is because quality takes time — testing, patience and constant improvement.
It takes quantity to reach quality. For example:
Countless failures before reaching success
Seminal artwork
Mastering a new skill
Writing 300 hundred blog posts before finally getting good
The value of experience over just knowledge
9. Hindsight + Serendipities
We often don’t realize — or appreciate — the slow-moving (sometimes mundane) moments in our day-to-day life.
Until bam!, we’re hit with sudden serendipity and a bright lightbulb turns on.
Hindsight bias, aha! moments and everything in between is a culmination of numerous experiences and moments, which can take time.
Eventually, our brains – either consciously or subconsciously – will connect the dots and we can receive some amazing truth, new perspective or sudden realization.
But serendipity and lightbulb moments require many different inputs over a long period of time.
And it can take a while – but it’s usually worth it.
10. Growing a Personal Brand
Your personal brand is something that can never be replicated or taken away (unless you like, do something horrible).
It’s the modern resume. It’s important. But more importantly, it’s fun and creative.
Your personal brand is your online reputation and authority — the ‘vibe’ you give off. It’s an asset. You can build trust and credibility, build a business and connect with amazing people across the globe.
I love it.
So if you’re want to learn more about all that stuff, check out my other site, Quin Creativ, where I talk about growing as a modern creator, creative branding, blogging and more.
Later ✌️
Great things take time. So this list is a collection of great things.
From compound interest and geology to hindsight, talent and growing a personal brand, some things take a lot of time (and work).
So focus on the day-to-day and enjoy the ride.
Icebergs are much bigger beneath the water.
Want More? Nice. Here’s More.
