Small Things Added Up Become Big Things

Everyone wants to accomplish big things but few people want to do the small things that add up to that result. How many times have you hoped that a job would open up somewhere where you could get paid to do what you love? For that job to exist the way you conceive of it requires someone else too do the the work to create a platform to offer you the job doing what you want to do. Who created that platform? Chances are they aren’t any smarter than you are. They were just willing to work and risk it to create something themselves. It probably took them years, not hours. It won’t be much different for you.

Do the things no one else wants to do and do them repeatedly. Everyone wants the result but few want the result enough to do the small things every single day, a million times in a row, and to the exclusion of other options. This is focus and intention sustained over a long period of time (+ discipline) that can help get the hard things done.

If you want to do something meaningful you are usually going to have to do things that are difficult. There are exceptions, of course, as we do meaningful things every day without even thinking twice about them. I am talking about living your life with purpose and vision. It takes discipline. It takes being selective of how you use your time and resources. It takes focus. Unfocused people cannot maintain what it takes to persist on a single task until it is finished.

Think about faithfulness with me for a moment. Faithfulness requires day in and day out commitment to a set of values. It requires a zillion small decisions every day in line with those values. Unfaithfulness in marriage is like this. Breaking marital faithfulness doesn’t often start with something big (jumping into bed with someone else)…it starts with many smaller compromises with the other person. Small things matter and they add up to become big things over time. Do the small things well. Don’t turn your nose at them because they seem small. They add up.

We all know things that we should be doing but we aren’t. What is stopping you from starting? Maybe it is fear of failure. Well, never starting is automatic failure. So risk it.

Be different. Work hard. Focus on what is most important. Get to work. Make it happen. Live a life of purpose. Purpose calls for our best.