At the end of the day, swamp crawling is the only way.

"We need to radically increase the ratio of grunts to visionaries, with fewer grand pronouncements made from podiums and more belly crawling through the swamps."  ~Auden Schendler in "Getting Green Done."

Amen to that.  And though Schendler is writing of a green/sustainability revolution, I think the principle applies in many parts of human endeavor.  Too often I live by words alone.  And "great thoughts."  At the end of the day the only thing that gets things done is to do them.  Belly crawling through the swamps of life.  Too many of us too often live in the realm of desire only and never take much action.  We want things--the great things, the needed things--to be done...but we don't want to be the ones to do them.  We don't want it enough.  That would require getting all dirty in the swamp.  That could be the swamp of trying to live a greener, more sustainable life, or it could be the swamp of dealing with one's own inner shit and unhealthy patterns, behavior, etc.  No shortcuts in life.  Only gruntwork.