Can you? Can I?

I can’t remember from which book I read this story, years before I spent 1 minute on the internet.
Many years ago, when the Grandfather clock was freshly invented. He was given a mandate to make “tick-tock” every second.
“Just make tick-tock every second, and your long & short arms will move correspondingly. Do you understand?”
“Tick-tock is just two syllables right? 2 syllables every second.”
“On point!”
“That means that in 1 minute, I will make 60 x 2 syllables? 120!”
“Correct!”
“In one hour that will be 120 x 60 = 3,600? And in one day 3,600 x 24 = 86,400!”
“Why the calculation?”
“One month is 86,400 x 30 = 2,592,000; and one year is 86,400 x 365 = 31,536,000? And in 10 years over 310 million tick-tocks! I am so sorry. I can’t do this. It’s too much!”
And an argument, persuasion and pacification ensued!

——— o ———

Eventually Grandfather clock agreed to start with just one second and keep his eyes on only the next second. And he has continued to do same through the years, with billions of tick-tocks behind!

Many of us also have projects, aspirations and assignments perpetually in front of us because we want “to eat the meal whole”! It may be effective to take a first step, and another, and another, and get our projects going rather than wait till we can take it all on at once.

Great week!