Baby Steps

My mother contends that, as a child, I would always rather whine about tackling an overwhelming job than I would just digging in and getting the job done.  I could, supposedly, spend an entire day on the task of cleaning my room, wasting precious organizational hours crying about the fact that I was being made to clean my room in the first place.  Had I just buckled down and GOT R DONE, the whole undertaking might have taken me less than a few hours.   

Some things never change.

I get seriously overwhelmed by the tasks at hand, most days.  Overwhelmed is sometimes an understatement.  Perhaps a better phrasing might be PARALYZED, FROZEN IN ONE SPOT, or INCAPABLE OF FIGURING OUT WHICH STEP TO CARRY OUT FIRST.

I know.  It seems so ridiculous.  I mean, I am a college graduate.  For heavens sake, I hold a graduate degree now!  I know this because it's hanging on my hallway wall!  And yet, I am incapable of figuring out how to tackle a large project. 

Oh don't get me wrong.  I eventually get it.  It comes to me in the flurry of "last minuteness."  But I sometimes envy those that think ahead and see the smaller pieces that fit together perfectly to create the larger picture.

I have no ability to see the smaller pieces because I am too busy trying to figure out how to take a large bite out of the big picture.

This weekend, I had a revelation.  The grand epiphany, if you will, is thus:
 
It's less about the BIG picture and more about the baby steps that get me to the BIG picture.

Oh my goodness!  How did this epiphany elude me until now?  It hardly seems possibly that I have gone this long without this golden nugget of knowledge, and yet here I am, an almost 41 year old woman, just now learning that it is okay to focus on the baby steps, and by focusing on the baby steps, I eventually get to the BIG picture. 

One baby step at a time ...

I might just whip this life into organizational shape yet!

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