Emphasize the small

In life, we pay too much attention to the major changes. We see the awards at the end of the journey and ignore the journey itself. We want to feel ambition and instantly reach the highest heights of our dreams.

This might seem good, and it can be. It can motivate you to try something new. But it can also be the reason you aren’t reaching higher heights. Striving for massive success overlooks the small steps needed to get on track. We see the mountain ahead of us. We don’t focus on the next step on the trail.

This causes us to overwhelm ourselves. In our mind, we sabotage our efforts. We try to rely on passion. We use willpower. But those aren’t enough to keep pushing us forward during most of the difficult moments.

A better approach, once we get that ambitious feeling, is to look at our daily processes. What are we doing on a regular basis that is helping or hurting our chances of success in this area? Are there things we need to start doing to succeed?

That will give you the steps that you need to take. That will help you understand how your systems need to change. If you keep doing what you are doing now, you will keep getting what you have now. When you want improvement, what you are doing isn’t good enough.

Then, we need to break it down further. We need to break it down to tiny steps that we can start to take. Those small steps matter. They provide the spark that will carry through those challenges and obstacles.

In the book, Can’t Hurt Me, author and Navy SEAL David Goggins, says, “The engine in a rocket ship does not fire without a small spark first. We all need small sparks, small accomplishments in our lives to fuel the big ones. Think of your small accomplishments as kindling. When you want a bonfire, you don’t start by lighting a big log. You collect some witch’s hair – a small pile of hay or some dry, dead grass. You light that, and then add small sticks and bigger sticks before you feed your tree stump into the blaze. Because it’s the small sparks, which start small fires, that eventually build enough heat to burn the whole forest down.”

I love that analogy. Our ambition is the fuel. It could be jet engine fuel like the rocket analogy or small wood. But nothing happens until we have that spark. I don’t see that spark as a jolt of motivation. I see that spark as action. We have to start taking action towards our goal. That small action might be a tiny spark, but it is needed to grow a larger explosion of energy as we add a little more fuel at each step.

But most of us come with a giant log and some lighter fluid and want it to instantly turn into a perfect fire. When we can’t provide that spark, that small action step, nothing happens. It just sits there as we become more disappointed the longer we hold back any action.

Great accomplishment comes from small actions, added up. They are the daily steps towards your goal. They are the small things that you are doing over and over. Consistency and persistence matter more than effort and motivation.

Think of starting a small fire with the capacity of burning down the forest. That is the blueprint for you to tackle your highest ambitions. Start small, take action, then add more and more fuel with more and more action. Soon you will become that large fire, powerful and enduring. All from a tiny spark.