Start Small
Do you have a lot you want to accomplish, but don’t know where to start? Do you get overwhelmed with all there is to do, and don’t know where to begin, so sometimes you don’t begin? This is me, a lot of the time. I get overwhelmed with all the things I need to do or want to do, that I don’t know where to begin to even start. There are so many different places I can start, different things I can do, and which one is right or best?! This thinking often leads me to procrastinating due to the fear of not starting in the right or best place. Which then falls under a type of perfectionism.
So the other day, I was sitting here thinking about what to write about, and all the things I want to write about, and two words came to my mind…”start small”. When those two words came to my mind and even still today as I write this, a sense of peace and calm come over me. Telling me to just begin, in a small way. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but a small step forward. It’s the process of small steps and starting small, that lead to bigger moves.
It’s the small repeated actions, day after day, that move the needle. Not the big actions. Especially when starting out. It’s like when you start with a plate full of food for supper. You don’t tip the plate over and try to dump it all into your mouth. You use your fork to take small bites one bite at a time until it’s gone. (Ok, so a food analogy is a little weird but it works, you get the idea).
Another example, is when decluttering your house or your electronics. Take a small area (like the photo pictured above of one drawer in my bathroom) and declutter that very small area (or box, drawer, etc.). By starting small, and continuing with a very small area, you build momentum because accomplishing the task is very doable and doesn’t take a lot of time.
Starting small, makes the tasks in front of you so much easier to complete and do. The task doesn’t seem as daunting or overwhelming. The level of hard is less present.
Is “starting small” how you tackle tasks, or do you have a different method?