1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 1,000,000,000
“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”
– Mother Teresa
The other night I went to a presentation on organization. I have to say I was slightly crushed to learn there’s no magic secret to keeping coats off the banister and shoes out of the hallway –you actually have to put them away. Bummer.
{disclaimer: not my mess}
The strategies we talked about were nothing new: put things away as soon as you get home, throw away mail you don’t know, make a list before going to the grocery store, blah, blah, blah.
But at the end of the talk there were a couple drawings for rewarding you for not leaving halfway through. Thank goodness I made it through, because I won! I never win. I ended up with a copy of the book the speaker was reading, The Compound Effect.
Now, I’m not gonna lie- I haven’t even opened the cover yet. But the concept is clear from the title: tiny little things add up.
Tiny little things add up. It’s always been my philosophy for health: make small changes and eventually you’ll make a big impact on your health. I hadn’t realized that can basically be applied to anything.
- Cleaning your house? Do a little bit every day. Eventually you’ll be spic and span.
- Running a marathon? Start with a mile. And then another. And then another. Before you know it, you’ll be well past 26.
- Ditching cigarettes? Smoke one less each day, until you’re down to zero. {Ok, ok that’s subtracting. Same difference.}
- Writing a thesis? Write a couple pages every day. Maybe you’ll finally get a paper done before the day it’s due.
“All great things are only a number of small things that have carefully been collected together.”
What small things have you done to make a big impact? What big goals do you have that can be tackled little by little instead of all at once?
