Adages like the one I've chosen as a title for this text are rarely reassuring.  We know it's true, but we also know that they don't provide the answers we need.  Instant gratification has an undenial appeal that regardless of whether it's fast food or rocketing to the top of our professions, while we know in our hearts it may not be the best thing for us, we often unintentionally find ourselves leaning in this direction.  I'm as guilty as charged and it was not until today that I realized indeed how guilty I have been.  I've been trying to overcome a spate of "writer's block" on these two projects that I have been working on, and for the life of me couldn't figure out how I was going to make any progress on them.  Then it hit me; just as I was about to again rattle off the litany of things that I needed to do to complete these projects, I remembered that I had been neglecting the most essential part of accomplishing this task, simply working on them.  I'd become so focused on what they'd look when done, or how I'd get them done, that kept on forgetting to work on them.  What's makes this more ironic is that two weeks ago I spent a week preaching the gospel of incremental progress to a group of writers, and still somehow managed to not see the error of my ways.  So yes, Rome was not built in a day, but I can do something each day to get myself another step closer to Rome.