Undertake the small

Most people want big wins. We want to have enormous success. We want riches. We want admiration. We want to be on top.

Having ambition is fine but it often leads us astray when it comes to the steps needed to reach a higher level of success. Instead of seeing the small steps that we can take, we get preoccupied by daydreaming about the rewards. Instead of working towards our goals, we get sucked into the craving of the win.

We have to learn how to shift our thinking to be on the action steps needed. We have to take on the role of doer. We have to be willing to put in the work and sacrifice pleasures now to build something better in the future.

For most people, this is difficult. It is difficult because it becomes overwhelming. Seeing all the work needed creates anxiety and pressure. The stress builds up and deters us from taking any action. We procrastinate, seeing the mountain of work ahead of us.

The way to overcome this is to learn how to break those mountains of work down to smaller chunks. We still have to do the work, but if we shift our focus we can start to make a little progress. Once we start building, it is easier to keep building. Once we have succeeded with a few tasks, it is easier to take on larger tasks.

In Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, Dr. Wayne Dyer states, “Change your notion of ‘thinking big’ to ‘thinking small and getting big things done.’ Examine whatever it is that seems so enormous that it terrifies you to start. Then shift your thinking to see what can be done today in your precious present moments, completely ignoring the overall picture. Your accomplishments will magnify into greatness when you undertake the small; by doing so you’ll paradoxically see huge results.”

I’ve tackled many large projects at all types of businesses. Every project required this simplistic mindset. We had to see the big picture and create a project plan. But then it often took putting our heads down to work through many of the tasks.

The small elements mattered. If we skimped on one of the small steps, it would result in a larger problem later, one that meant more time and effort to solve. By solving problems while they are small, we make it easier to tackle each one.

Whatever you want to achieve in life, learn how to see the simplicity. Learn to break it down into smaller steps. Then shift your focus to tackling those small steps. As you do, you will start to create momentum.

Even when you are midway through a project, there is benefit to breaking it down into small chunks. Small tasks are easier than large tasks. This helps to keep making progress throughout the project.

There are times when a big problem emerges and requires a big response. But too often we build up a bunch of small elements, creating a mountain of a problem. Instead, we have to learn to break that mountain down into those small elements. Then we have to tackle those small elements with everything we have.