According to ChatGPT, it can take two to seven days to produce a single drinking glass.
That work gets undone in less than a second with one accidental swipe of a kid's hand.
You may be diligent about exercising five, six, maybe even seven days a week for years.
Then a freak injury like an achilles tear can occur in seconds and take you out for several months.
A tree could be growing in a park for a century.
A single tornado then decides to swing by and uproot it in less than a minute.
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It takes much longer to build something than to break something.
This imbalance exists everywhere.
I don't think we can escape the fragility of tangible things—like glass, muscles, or trees.
I think we have a chance to battle against this fragility when it comes to intangible things.
Let's take an idea like trust.
Trust between two people can take a while to build. Trust gets stronger over time. Trust is also fragile.
How do we combat the fragility of trust?
Transparency is one way. Vulnerability is another. Forgiveness is a third.
Sometimes, we don't recognize the fragility of something until it's too late.
Like I said, with tangible things, I don't think we have much hope to escape this truth.
With intangible things—especially things that deal with relationships—we can first recognize their fragile nature and then focus on battling against it.
I'll leave you with a few more intangible things that have a fragile nature.
Reputation, confidence, motivation, belief systems, and optimism.
Keep fighting.
