The Power of Going For It, Small-Time

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing my new garden shed!

[sounds of a roaring crowd]

What, you’re not immediately blown away by this photo? I mean, I get it. It’s not particularly big, nor particularly artfully organized.

But let me put it in context:  What you are looking at arrived in about a hundred pieces spread across two large boxes at my house nearly three weeks ago.

I knew putting it together was going to be a challenge. I mean, I can put together an IKEA table pretty well, but this project required two drills, a level, and something called a block plane. It is way, way outside my handiness comfort zone.

Since that day, I have enlisted the help of friends, family members, and professionals (well, he’s my husband but he’s also a woodworker) to help me work my way through the 40-step instruction manual.

Forty steps! Consider that I’ve had to work on this puppy in 20-minute increments as that is about how long any of the diversionary art projects I concocted for the kids would hold their attention. It has been sloooooooow going, let me tell you.

And yet, there she is. Isn’t she a beauty? I can see her out my kitchen window. And she’s made of cedar, so when I open her up I get a great big whiff of woodsy deliciousness. And perhaps best of all, she’s currently containing all the various garden tools that were just days ago strewn all over our deck and backyard. (Which means we have a nice clean deck to enjoy thanks to her.

I’m telling you about my garden shed journey for two reasons.

One, I’m super proud.  =)

And two, is to show you that you can never discount the power of taking small steps in whatever time you can manage.

A lot of us have this idea that we have to “Go for it, bigtime” if we want to create meaningful and lasting changes. When really, going for it smalltime has just as much power as the grand, sweeping gestures.

The one bugaboo of the little steps approach is that annoying little voice that says, “What does it matter? This one little thing isn’t going to make any difference.” Maybe it’s the 10-minute walk you could take instead of the hour-long power workout, or the one email you send to pitch a speaking gig instead of getting your whole speaker packet designed and printed, or the 2 minutes you spend sitting quietly before you get out of bed instead of the 30 minutes of meditation you intended on doing.

FACT: Any step, no matter how small, you take with some level of consistency will add up to huge and wonderful things over time.

What small step will you take today? What larger goal will it be moving you toward? And what kinds of ripple effects will spin out from that forward momentum? I’d love to hear what you’re working on and create a space where we can root each other on. Share you thoughts in the comments of the blog version of this article. See you there!