Big may be beautiful, but when it comes to learning … small is where the magic happens.
When Neil Armstrong took “one giant leap for mankind” we all cheered. We celebrated the BIG. What we forgot in the flush of that historic success were the years and thousands of man-hours of concentrated effort that got him to the moon. The many “small” steps and little successes that added up to that one giant leap.
As the Buddhist adage states, ” A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” More than that single step, the journey is made of hundreds of single steps – all SMALL, all leading to the ultimate goal. ALL worth celebrating in their own right.
Small lets you view the scenery. It let’s you get your bearings without plunging headlong into the unknown. It gives you the opportunity to notice and assess and tweak your course of action.
It also lets you test without significant risk. Or, overwhelm. As you make one small step you have the opportunity to adjust to your new position, to feel safe in the spot you’re in before taking the next step. Moving step by little step gives your brain and the people around you the chance to get comfortable with change by increments.
If you are one of those people who feel that change, any change, is threatening to your very being, say something akin to falling off a cliff, small shifts give you a chance to get your footing before you move on.
So bite off less than you know you can chew and savor the experience.
If you think of your goal as a journey as opposed to a destination, you’ll have a better chance of creating a map of how you’re going to get to where you want to go. What does your map look like? What are 10, 20, 30 tiny steps you can take to get from here to there?
Life Options 