Single Step
“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” – Lao Tzu, Chinese Taoist, Philosopher
I have heard the last part of this quote many times, but not the first part. Which is odd because I think that the first part is the most important, because so many things in life are easy to do when they are small.
But we have a habit of thinking that I will do it tomorrow and we keep procrastinating and pretty soon it is not as easy to do – whether it is communicating in a relationship, or maintaining our vehicles, or doing a small repair. An oil change put off too long can become a major replacement of the engine. Not having an open flow of communication with our children when they are younger can turn into out of control teenagers. That small thing that we forgot to say we are sorry for can turn into a wall of hurt feelings that may take us years to tear down.
It all begins with a simple step, which to me is remembering to do what we know needs to be done. Make a list, set an alarm to remind you, send yourself a voice mail or text to alert you – just get some sort of system in place so that those small snowballs don’t turn into an avalanche that mow you down. It is a lot easier to move the mile carton away from the edge than it is to clean up the proverbial spilt milk!
