Favorite Inspirational Quotes

The greatest things on earth have been done little by little.

Thomas Guthrie

Mike Brescia uses this quote in his essay as a starting point to show that any task, any goal, any day, can be broken down into small steps that just appear to be one big goal, task or day.

When you think about it, it is very true. Even the pyramids and great cathedrals that took years to build, were accomplished one block, one step, one stone cut, at a time. There was an overall plan or blueprint as to how it would all go together and how it would look. There was a strategy for how to accomplish the plan.

But the work was broken down and accomplished as a series (or many series) of small tasks. What’s more, is that they kept working at these tasks, doing one after another, for years and decades. Talk about the long view!

I believe that is one of our shortcomings as a culture. We want what we want and right now! Maybe that’s another reason so many New Year’s resolutions fail to be carried out. We don’t break them down into small steps/tasks and we don’t get results right away. We don’t have a realistic view of how long things can take. And ads certainly don’t help with that with their overnight promises of change or relief or instant romance or whatever.

Looking at the big overall goal can become overwhelming, especially with no quick results; those quick results we as a culture want to see. Maybe that’s a function of how fast we get our information and how fast technology changes things these days.

However, by breaking our goals down into small steps, even baby steps, and learning to take the long view, or at least a longer view of the process, it would be less stressful all around. Things take the time they are going to take and accepting that leads to a more peaceful heart.

Maybe having only one or two big goals each year as discussed by Leo at Zen Habits would also keep us from being overwhelmed and giving up too soon. Then take those major goals and break them into small projects with baby steps that we can accomplish each day.

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