Think big – Start small!
Posted by Ben Lumley on Feb 27, 2010 in Goals, Success | 39 comments
photo credit: greenmarlin
How do you eat an elephant?
Have you ever asked yourself that question? Before you start thinking about animal cruelty or how you’d even approach a giant elephant to be in a position to eat it, just think about it. Are you going to sit yourself down and just eat it, one big sitting, job done? Or would you eat a bit and then have a rest before coming back for a bit more?
How would you move a mountain?
Would you get a big rope, tie it around the top of the highest peak and start pulling? How silly would it be to get a spoon and dig out a spoon full and put it somewhere else? But if you carried on for years and years and years taking a spoonful at a time, you’d move a fair bit of it, right? Damn right you would! After a while you might meet someone who has a digger and then you’d begin moving quite a bit at each visit. Eventually more people would join your cause and with spoons and diggers you’d move that mountain before you knew what was happening.
So what’s the moral of the story?
If you have big dreams (which in my mind you should have) you need to start with small steps. Let’s examine those two points in turn shall we?
Big dreams.
Reach for the stars
If you dream big and you aim for something amazing, you’ll get behind the idea. If you just pick something average and unexciting, how pumped up do you think you’d be about going out there and starting to achieving it? Not very, I’d imagine. If you’re going to achieve something you need to get really pumped up and excited about it. You need to think big.
Sound scary? Yeah I bet it does. Why? Because all your life you’ve conditioned yourself to think that you can’t achieve the big things. You look around at successful people and say to yourself “I can’t do that. I’m not good enough to do that. I’ll never be able to do what they do.” Do you know what? You’re right too! Well you are if you always think like that. Your subconscious picks up on these kind of messages. Say them too much and you’re knackered!
1) Don’t be afriad to dream big
2) Don’t take no for answer
3) Don’t just look at the small mountains
Small steps.
If you’ve just had a moment of clarity and your dream has sat up and smacked you in the face then great. If it hasn’t don’t worry; just take some time for yourself and think about the sort of dreams you’d like to have. Write down everything that comes to mind.
So if you have a dream or a big goal in mind, what now? Well what can you do right now to start achieving your dream? What small step can you make in the right direction? The first step might be to decide that this is what you must do. You might be able to take your very first step today – it would surprise me if you couldn’t do something.
The important thing is to remember to take small steps. Don’t try and rush off eating the back half of the elephant at the first sitting. No sense in trying to shift the top 100 feet of the mountain with such a little spoon. But what if you took a bite or a spoonful at a time? What if you kept doing that until your spoon became bigger or your appetite became larger?
Small steps are where to start. As time goes on, you’ll find you’re able to take bigger and more confident steps. Slowly but surely, you start to build momentum and when you get momentum you’re on your way.
1) Think of 5 small steps that you could take over the next 7 days to make it happen
2) Don’t rush out of the gate, the first to finish
3) Repeat to yourself “little steps”
So….
When working towards a goal, I’m often reminded of the Truck Pull events in the World’s Strongest Man competitions. To shift such a massive weight, each strong man must take little steps to get the truck moving. Once it’s moving and their momentum starts to build, it’s just a case of them maintaining their direction and keep moving.
But how rewarding do you think it would be crossing that finish line pulling a truck? Pretty amazing, right?
The old saying “You can achieve anything you set your mind to” is true. You just have to have big enough dreams, enough determination and willpower to slowly start that ball rolling.
Remember: Take a spoonful at a time.
What big dreams do you have?
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Ben Lumley writes about Success and Personal Achievement at 6aliens.com. He is a Personal Achievement Coach and Motivational Speaker.
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39 comments
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Hi Ben
This story reminds me of clients I've worked with who have wanted to lose a lot of weight and can find it difficult to accept that weekly losses of even 1-2lbs add up to big change over a long time. Helping them trust that what looks to them to be no progress is actually vital progress in the grand scheme of things can sometimes be challenging! But when they find that trust in themselves to stick with the small steps, they wake up one morning and see a different person starting to appear in the mirror. Then they see how wonderful they've been in the process of their own recreation.
Yes, small steps can add up to lots!
I have always thought that small steps are really valuable and essential at the beginning, because when you are moving too fast and steps are too big you can miss something.
Great article. Thanks!
Hey Ben – love the principle. I've heard it many times, even mentioned it myself before. I have some pretty big goals (by most standards).
Here's the thing though… I don't think they're big enough any more. Need to spend some time thinking about it, and it just hit me how important that is.
Thank you!
Also, what are your goals? If you don't mind me asking.
Ben,
An honest and realistic look at a great way to approach your goals. It reminds me of the following quote:
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Confucius
It's important to realise that keeping focussed isn't about how far we can see. It's about keeping things in perspective. When travelling by car, at night, your headlights allow you to see as far as you need to do. There's no need to see any further.
Regards
Paul
As I said earlier via Twitter, I love the message in this post. I'm very biased because the idea of eating an elephant is what Give A Brick is built on but that aside, it is a great principle. As Christine said, it's a wonderful principle for weight loss (in fact I seem to remember that this was the context I first heard it used.)
Anyway, thanks for the motivation.
Eleanor
Big goals scare some people when they don't believe they can do it. Even small goals scare people who feel helpless. Getting people to believe in even small things can be hard.
Hey brother,
Little steps always count to something, every journey starts with a single step right?
This isn't what I'm about so I can have a different view on it, my question to you would be in your opinion does this type of mentality hunder progress? Does it give some the excuse of taking slightly smaller than average steps while kidding themselves there are digging with a spoon when really they should grab a shovel?
Not disagreeing with the post, just offering a different perspective on it all.
Look at the big picture then take action. I was trying to eat the whole elephant all at once, it is much easier to nibble at it first. Getting over the fear and excuses also.
Hey Christine
Great example of what I mean. It can be frustrating initially when you don't see radical change from the small steps you've made but soon the change can be very evident.
Thanks for taking the time to comment!
Yeah exactly Albert. If you race off in the beginning or try to take massive steps you can make massive mistakes that can effect you greatly later down the line.
Thanks for the comment
Hey Heather – glad you enjoyed it.
I think big goals or visions are really important.
My biggest goal is (and has always been) to climb Mt Everest! Maybe you could say it's a fairly tall goal!
Thanks Paul
I love that Confucious quote, have heard it many times before. The first step is usually the hardest one too.
Thanks for stopping by.
Glad you enjoyed it Eleanor and that it fits with Give A Brick
Completely right Ralph. But I think it's much easier to get some people to believe in small goals than massive seemingly insurmountable goals. Once a few small steps have been taken you can begin to build momentum.
I think people who make excuses will do so whether they have a spoon or a shovel James – it's just their mentality isn't it? We both know this.
I wouldn't say that breaking down something massive in to something small hinders progress. In fact I would say that its quite the opposite for those people who find big goals too much to comprehend.
I would say that you take small steps buddy. Every post you write, every comment you make and every tweet you send are all small steps that get you a little bit closer to your ultimate goal. I think the difference is that you take all those little steps very quickly and build momentum very early off. Its like the normal process but on fast forward.
Yeah small steps help to build that all important confidence don't they Tad?
Always start with a bit of the Elephant!
hi ben,
how are you?
reading this post reminds me of my 6mth old daughter. on monday she was on her playmat trying to crawl. as soon as we noticed that we started leaving her on the playmat more frequently and guess what she's started crawling a bit. as they say, little drops of water make a mighty puddle.
i think this is applicable to our goals.
take care,
Ah crawling is such as great age!
Thanks for the comment Ayo!
In my case, I always take note of what my current goal is. Then I list down the steps that would lead me to attain that goal. I try to be as specific as possible, and here is where I can relate to what you said: little steps mean a lot. These short specific tasks, similar to little steps, need to be done correctly, in order for the main goal to be successful. And when one doesn't succeed, he should not be afraid to start all over again, or start at the step where he needs improvement.
I think the key is the actual “starting”. Plenty of people have dreams and grand ideas, but fail to take that first small step
Yeah it's that scary first step isn't Anthony that people struggle to take? Getting that first action in the bag makes a massive difference
Hey Julius
It's great to see you breaking down big goals. As you say it's really important that you do those first few steps/tasks well to help succeed the overall goal.
Wow, Ben, this reminds me of a blog post I have going up here soon. It reminds me of that because I wanted to get my car unstuck from the snow in our parking lot and it took a lot to get it out but I had the determination and wouldn't give up.
Anyway, read Wednesday's post for more.
But you have the right idea here man. Have a goal and go for it just a bit at a time and soon as it builds up and you get more done you'll see progression. Then, before you know it, you're done!
Well, somewhere down the line I wanted to run my own VFX company… but it's not grabbing me in the way it used to, so I need to reassess
Everest though?! Best of luck Ben, I'm sure you'll do it some day!
Yup chip away and chip away and eventually you'll have something that will amaze you
What would grab you now?
Hi Ben,
Your post reminds me of when I set climbing goals. My goal this year is to climb a route called The Grooves in the Llanberis Pass in Wales. It's a classic route but will need for me to train and work up to it gradually.
What are you doing to make your Everest goal come true?
Adrian
Honestly? I've no idea. May end up deciding to make a movie or something
Ha ha never thought of it like that
Is the Groove on the Snowdon side or the Gylder's side of the pass? Boy I've driven down that pass a lot to get to the start of walking routes.
Well for Everest I'm revisiting the dream as its something I wanted long ago but did nothing about. I'm getting back into mountain walking and hopeful from there will learn to rock and ice climb.
Hi Ben,
The Grooves is on the Snowdon side on the Cyrn Las crag. A formidable route and quite an undertaking but a worthy project.
When you get time I'd suggest you get someone to take you to your local climbing wall for a taster session or book onto a group for an intro session. If you get the 'bug' then there will be no stopping you!
Adrian
That would be very cool Heather. I could be the handsome leading man
Think of it like the Duracell bunny lol
Lol, it'd be animated if I was ever doing that. Will keep you in mind for voices though
Oh for sure! I do a great Essex boy accent lol
Cool man! I'm up that neck of the woods a lot as my parents live in North Wales and we visit a fair bit. Hope to see you up a wall one day soon
I've not climbed since school. My brother in law is a pretty good climber and I might ask him to show me the ropes (so to speak) to get me back in the swing of things. Thanks for the advice.
Sweet! … we're getting ahead of ourselves here lol, don't even know if I want to make one yet
(though the thought appeals a bit)
wow !!! What an interesting way to start an article, liked every single bit of it !!
small steps is surely the way forward, it also helps u get more motivation once u take them.
your blog rocks !!!
Hey Raj
Really glad you liked the post. Small steps build up to big actions.
Come back soon