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Introduction

In the dusty hills of Bihar’s Gaya district, a man named Dashrath Manjhi spent 22 years chiseling away at a mountain—alone, with only a hammer and chisel, to carve a path to the nearest town. Mocked by villagers and tested by poverty and grief, Manjhi’s labour was born not from grandeur but from love and loss. After his wife died due to lack of access to medical care, separated from help by the unyielding hill, he decided no other life should be lost to such neglect. Years after his path was carved, the government finally built a metalled road, connecting the region to hospitals and markets, dramatically improving access, livelihoods, and dignity for thousands. Manjhi’s solitary labour had done what systems failed to. This proves that determination, even in its quietest form, can move mountains and lives alike. This story is not just about physical endurance, it symbolises the transformative power of small, purposeful actions repeated over time.

This essay explores how lasting change is sculpted through patience. At the same time it highlights the significance of strategic leaps that help propel the course of bringing lasting change.

Small Steps, Big Impact

Human motivation rarely thrives on sudden, dramatic change. Instead, it flourishes with steady, visible progress. James Clear in Atomic Habits, reveals how marginal improvements, just 1% better each day, can compound into extraordinary long-term results. Our struggle often lies in overestimating what we can accomplish in a short span while underestimating the power of consistent effort over time.

Small beginnings are not a sign of weakness, rather a smart and sustainable strategy. It eases the fear of failure, makes challenges less intimidating, and helps us build internal momentum. Whether it’s learning a new language, healing from emotional wounds, or rebuilding confidence, growth respects consistency more than intensity. It honours the process over perfection, allowing resilience to take root. With patience as fuel, even the humblest step becomes a gateway to transformation.

Personal Growth through Consistent Action

It is often through small, consistent decisions that our identities take shape. Transformation in character, values, and identity is never overnight. The cultivation of virtues such as discipline, courage, and empathy comes through repeated actions. These actions, often unnoticed, move internal mountains of fears, regrets, habits, prejudices. It helps nurture self-awareness and emotional intelligence, empowering individuals to navigate complexity with grace. Just as a river carves canyons through persistent flow, personal transformation unfolds through consistent, humble efforts that deepen our understanding and expand our potential.

Persistence also changes how we view failure, turning setbacks into opportunities for growth and eventual success. Thomas Edison famously said about his many unsuccessful attempts, “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Each failure offered a chance to refine his purpose and approach. Similarly, Colonel Sanders faced over 1,000 rejections before his fried chicken recipe became the foundation of a global brand, KFC, with thousands of outlets worldwide.

However, the path of small steps is not without its shadows. Self- doubts, mental fatigue, societal expectations, and sudden disruptions constantly our test resolve. Consider the aspiring entrepreneur navigating economic uncertainty or the rural girl resisting early marriage to pursue education—here, every small victory demands resistance.

Social and Institutional Change through Persistence

Just as personal transformation demands patience, so too does social and institutional change. History often remembers revolutions as sudden. But enduring reform in societies cannot be microwaved; it requires slow cooking with intention. The Indian independence struggle did not begin with the Quit India Movement. It began decades earlier, with social reformers abolishing sati, fighting caste discrimination, and opening schools for girls. These efforts may have seemed like “small stones,” but without them, political freedom would have stood on shaky ground.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar’s lifelong mission for Dalit empowerment through law, education, and mobilisation also illustrates  how systemic change is built gradually. From establishing hostels for marginalised students to drafting the Constitution, Ambedkar’s journey shows how systemic change is forged in stages.

Every transformative social movement begins quietly, growing stronger through collective resilience and purpose. The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 was not a gift from the state but a product of years of grassroots advocacy by groups like Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. Through public hearings and persistent campaigns, common citizens transformed transparency from an abstract idea into a legislated right. Each protest staged, each petition filed, each act moved a stone toward accountability.

Leadership, Nation-Building, and Collective Action

Just as personal transformation and social reform require patience, so does nation-building. In this domain, incremental change creates institutional legitimacy. The White Revolution did not begin in boardrooms but in rural Anand, where Verghese Kurien helped dairy farmers build cooperatives. The success of Amul was not an overnight event but a slow accretion of trust, shared ownership, and decentralised governance.

Overcoming Internal and External Barriers to Starting Change

One of the reasons people hesitate to act is the overwhelming scale of modern problems like climate change, inequality, loneliness, and a growing sense of purposelessness. The challenges seem so vast, so deeply entrenched, that individual action feels insignificant.

The way forward is not to deny the scale of the mountain, but to shift focus, to narrow the lens. Change begins not by solving everything at once, but by choosing one small, tangible starting point. Teach a child to read. Cut down a single household’s plastic waste. Offer consistent emotional support to one struggling person. These may seem modest, even invisible, but they are the first stones that clear the path.

Importantly, these small acts have cumulative power. They create ripples, not just by their impact, but by setting examples, breaking inertia, and inviting others into action. The Wangari Maathai’s Green Belt Movement in Kenya began with just a few trees and women planting saplings. Today, over 50 million trees later, it stands as a testament to grassroots impact, built stone by stone. Social energy grows when people see movement, however slight. Small victories build confidence; confidence creates community; and community leads to systems shifting.

The Role of Patience in a World Obsessed with Speed

Today, speed is celebrated. “Move fast and break things,” said Silicon Valley. But in this rush, we often break ourselves, mentally, emotionally, even morally. Impatience breeds disappointment and even small failures feel like collapse.

Moving a mountain is not meant to be glamorous. Some of the most valuable achievements like building trust, overcoming addiction, grieving well, or becoming wise can simply cannot be rushed.

Even in public policy or development, the temptation is for instant results but the most successful policies are those that are implemented slowly, evaluated periodically, and adjusted patiently. For instance, the Aadhaar program in India was gradually implemented through pilots and phased scaling, allowing for adjustments and improvements. Its patient rollout enabled effective integration with welfare schemes, demonstrating the power of slow, steady policy execution.

However, leadership is not simply about waiting endlessly. Visionaries must know when to pivot from persistence to action. Former President APJ Abdul Kalam, while advocating for students to dream big, also emphasised daily discipline.

Sometimes Leaps Are Necessary

Despite the virtue of small steps, there are moments when one cannot afford the luxury of time. During India’s 1991 economic crisis, foreign reserves had depleted to two weeks’ worth of imports. Waiting patiently for gradual fiscal reforms would have been catastrophic. The bold liberalisation measures initiated under Dr. Manmohan Singh were controversial, but essential. In one stroke, India leapt from a closed economy to a globally integrated market.

Crises shrink timelines. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated this globally. The rapid development of vaccines under Operation Warp Speed in the USA, or repurposing of manufacturing in India, shows how urgency overrides bureaucracy. Had nations relied solely on incremental improvements, the cost would have been millions more lives.

In social progress, incrementalism can sometimes serve as a pretext for delay, allowing entrenched injustices to persist longer than necessary. The Supreme Court’s 2018 decriminalisation of Section 377 was a bold judicial step that overcame decades of stigma. Here, waiting for public consensus would have only extended injustice. Likewise, swift legislative measures like reservation policies and land reforms in post-independence India were essential to promptly address entrenched inequalities.

Yet, not all leaps lead to progress. Demonetisation (2016) was a bold move, but its mixed results illustrate that urgency without planning can backfire. Thus, bold action must be informed, timely, and purpose-driven, not impulsive. Effective change balances urgency with careful assessment to avoid unintended consequences.

Balancing Purposeful Patience and Strategic Urgency

As T.S. Eliot wrote, “The greatest proof of strength is restraint.” Yet, restraint must be responsive, not passive.  Another key skill is temporal intelligence, the wisdom to sense when to wait and when to act. Mahatma Gandhi exemplified this balance in his years of grassroots mobilisation culminating in bold acts like the Salt March. His movements simmered quietly before erupting with strategic urgency, a testimony that “timing is often more important than speed.”

Stakeholder readiness is another vital dimension. Leaders who bring change must understand if people, laws, and institutions are ready for fast action. Early land acquisition reforms in India could not achieve the desired success, not because the idea was wrong, but because patient groundwork, requiring consultation, communication, and trust-building was bypassed.

Balance is not compromise but strategic synthesis. It requires leaders to plant seeds with foresight and strike decisively when conditions mature. “Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet,” said Rousseau—but sometimes the fruit spoils if not harvested in time. Meaningful change lies in the wisdom to carry stones daily, yet also know when to push with strength.

The Invisible Labour Behind Success

What we admire as success often is built upon invisible, unacknowledged effort. Behind a beautiful performance lies hours of practice. Behind a wise person lie years of reading, reflection, and errors. Behind every resilient community lies quiet work by individuals, volunteers, workers who moved stones while no one was watching.

We must, therefore, learn to value not just the finish line, but the quiet courage of those who built the road.

The Dual Role of the Individual and the Collective

Beyond individual action, collective strength is of equal significance. A man may begin the work, but if many join, the mountain moves faster. Dashrath Manjhi moved a mountain, but imagine if a hundred had joined him. When individuals lift the first stone and others respond, change accelerates and hope spreads. Movements succeed not by scale alone, but by momentum, each small act inviting another.

Dashrath Manjhi’s story shows mountains can be moved not by rage but by relentless daily resolve. Yet history also shows moments when deliberate leaps, not steps, shaped destiny highlighted during the COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the Berlin Wall’s fall.

Small purposeful acts create the foundation of change, while urgent interventions ensure its arrival on time. As Victor Hugo said, “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” But an idea must be patiently nurtured until its moment of urgency arrives.

True change-makers are not just builders, but timekeepers, knowing when to move a stone and when to shake the mountain. Persistence and urgency, together, shape a path that neither alone can carve. Both persistence and urgency are not just methods, they are philosophies of movement. Together, they shape the road to transformation.

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