Every Ceiling Becomes a Floor: How Small Habits Create Extraordinary Results

Do you ever feel discouraged because your goals seem so far away?

In this episode of Brave Moves, Julie DeLucca-Collins explores a powerful quote from Aldous Huxley: "Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor upon which one walks." Julie shares why patience, consistency, habits, and community are essential ingredients for personal growth and success.

If you've been feeling frustrated by slow progress, this episode will remind you that lasting transformation is built through small daily actions and that the goals you're chasing today may one day become your new normal.

In This Episode

•  The meaning behind Aldous Huxley's famous quote 
•  Why patience is essential for growth 
•  The power of habits and consistency 
•  How community helps us stay committed 
•  Why we underestimate long-term progress 
•  How to recognize how far you've already come

Transcript

0:01

Have you ever looked at someone else's success and thought, "I could never do that"? Maybe it was writing a book, starting a business, or running that marathon, or perhaps speaking on stage. Maybe you have looked at everybody else and thought, "Ooh, look at that amazing relationship that they have built," or you're looking to create financial freedom, and it seems so far away, my friend. Well, whatever it was, it felt so far away that it might as well have been another planet. And today, I wanna share a quote that completely changes how we think about growth. And this is from the author Aldous Huxley, and he wrote, "Every ceiling, when reached, becomes a floor in which one walks." And I think this may be one of the most hopeful ideas I've ever heard, and this is why I wanted to share it with you. And before we dive in, if you're enjoying Brave Moves, make sure that you subscribe and leave a review, and share this with someone who may be feeling discouraged about how far they still have to go. And stay with me till the end, friend, because I wanna talk to you about the impatience is often the enemy of progress, and how our goals and the dreams that we have today may someday feel completely normal. Now, we forget how far we've come. We've talked about this on the show often. One of the biggest mistakes we are making is focusing only on the next mountain we have to climb, the next goal that we've set for ourselves, or perhaps that achievement that we wanna cross off the list. Maybe there is that milestone that you know you want to get to. And because we're always looking ahead, we forget to look down. We forget the ground we're standing on. The funny thing is that every floor you're standing on today was once the ceiling, and at some point, you had a current goal for income, or maybe you wanted to have a level of knowledge, or perhaps you didn't have the confidence you are living with today. Maybe your current relationship was a goal, or the business that you thought you could never start is the thing that provides you your main income now. You once prayed for the things you are now taking for granted. Most people overestimate what they can do in a month." And at times, they also underestimate what they can do in five years. You know why? Because growth rarely happens in dramatic leaps. Growth happens through every single habit we create, the tiny actions repeated consistently. This is why I like to say consistent action gets you traction. When we do things consistently, maybe that walk or workout, or maybe we write our book one page at a time, or perhaps have that brave conversation or maybe record a podcast, all of these things. And when we do them, and then do them again, and again, and again, and again until eventually, once something that felt impossible becomes super ordinary in our lives The secret here is a habit, and we often think success comes from that motivation. And you know what I'm gonna say, motivation is not it. It doesn't come from motivation, friends. Success is something that motivation is gonna be unreliable, but what is reliable are your habits. People who achieve extraordinary things aren't necessarily extraordinary people. They simply do ordinary things consistently every day, not when they feel like it and when they don't, because habits create the momentum that we need, and momentum is going to create results. I was actually listening to an interview with Pat Flynn, and as But one of the things that he did is he wanted to prove that consistent action gets you traction, and he decided that for 60 days he was going to record one episode, one short episode of him opening Pokémon cards. And sometimes he was getting a couple views, sometimes he was getting maybe 20 views, and then all of a sudden, when he was nearing the end of the 60 days, at day 45, I think he said, is when he ended up getting 750 views on that video. And then what happened next? People started to go back to the old videos, and now he has such a cult following in the Pokémon space because he has shown up consistently. And now he's at day 600 of showing up and doing the thing and posting a video, and now not only is he posting one short video on YouTube, he's repurposing this into every single platform. Now, it didn't happen overnight. He will tell you that when he first started to record these videos, these short videos that maybe are less than a minute long, it was taking him 45 minutes to do it. But now he has it down to a science. Why? Because he created that muscle. Practice matters. And the challenge isn't that we live in a culture that wants everything immediately. We want fast food, fast shipping, fast results, fast success. But meaningful growth operates on a different timeline. Nature does not rush. A rose doesn't bloom the day after it's planted. An oak tree doesn't become strong overnight, and neither do we. Patience is not a passive act. Patience is active trust. It's showing up today even when you can't see the result. There's power in the community, and this is why community matters so much. Because there will be days when your belief in yourself is so low that you don't wanna show up, and there will be days when you're tired and days when you're so frustrated because progress feels like it's so slow. It's slower than molasses And that's when community becomes really powerful in your life, my friend. We borrow belief from one another. We learn from one another. We pick up habits from the people around us, and we raise our expectations to the environment we place ourself in. If you're surrounded by people who are learning, growing, reading, building, creating, and striving to become better, eventually some of those habits will rub off on you. I used to say that I was not a morning person, and the thought of getting up at 5:00 in the morning, was indeed so crazy for me. And I ended up marrying a man whose habit is to get up at the crack of dawn, no matter what day it is. And guess what? I find myself now not only adopting the habit, but at times I am up before he is, and it's become a habit that I enjoy. I never thought I would say that. So future Julie, thank you for, reminding me that this is the habit I needed to create. And Julie from the past, if you're listening to this, you too will become a morning person. I know it's hard to believe. But here's the thing when I look at my life. It's become so many things at once, and yet it felt impossible to do all of these things, writing a book, standing on the TEDx stage, building a business, hosting this podcast, speaking across the country. None of these things happen overnight. And although they're all part of my life and part of my ecosystem, and it has been my human nature not to believe that I can get them all I did was set out to maybe write a page, set out an application for TEDx, show up for my business, decide to record a podcast. And speaking of podcast, we have hit 225 episodes of this show. In October, when I decided to do this little experiment, all I said is that I was going to record a podcast without Dan's help, without the team behind me, that I was gonna do everything. And it's just been something that I've learned to practice, recording, planning my episodes. Let's get back to something else as far as the moment of truth when it comes to this whole conversation. The life you're living today contains things that, like the younger version of me, you once dreamed about. Don't forget to honor that. Our brave moves for this week should be to really sit down and write down three things in our lives that once felt impossible, and ask yourself, "What habits helped me get there? What is the ceiling I'm currently working toward?" Because if you've done it before, you can do it again and again, one step at a time, one habit at a time, one day at a time. And remember, my friend, you don't let impatient convince you that you're failing. Growth often feels invisible while it's happening, but keep planting and learning and showing up, and keep taking one small brave step. Because one day you'll look around and realize that the ceiling you're reaching for right now has become the floor beneath your feet, and that is your brave move