Sweating the small stuff

Small steps get you there eventually. Where? Anywhere … everywhere. The steps may be very,very small, miniscule, in point of fact, but they still move you. Sometimes, it will feel like toddlers and geriatrics alike are lapping you like Usain Bolt on a Red Bull I/V drip, but just keep stepping. Moving forward is moving forward, no matter the pace.

I was reminded of this yesterday as D.W. and I were meeting. We only had about an hour to touch base, what with the business of life pulling us in so many directions, but we are committed to moving forward. In point of fact, D.W. is always waiting by the phone for my call. Poor little guy needs more friends, so I’m there for him. Anyway, we got together and had a limited amount of time, but we went over some marketing and story ideas. It did not seem like much at the time but, I have to say, it was a hugely important meeting. Why? Was there some amazing insight that we discovered? No. Was there a moment of epiphany that shown the light of inspiration down upon us? Not necessarily. Did we revolutionize the marketing of book self-publication? I wouldn’t go so far as to say that. Did D.W. feel needed? Yes … yes he did. However, beyond making D.W. feel better about himself, what was accomplished was something enormous. Drum roll please … we got my gravatar figured out! Yes, happy times and pass the champaign, we did it!

Now, in the interest of total fairness, I have to say that D.W. is a genius in all things technical. As for me, well … I type very well. Outside of that, I’m just happy I know where the computer’s ony-offy button is. So, it may not have been that great an accomplishment for D.W. It was a shining moment for me, though.

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I jest a bit, but we did get a few more things accomplished in terms of marketing ideas, though none as glorious in splendor as the gravatar, I can assure you. The reason why the meeting was so important is because we had it. We sweated the small stuff, as they say on the street. I don’t know quite who they are, or what street it is on which we can find them, but I have heard them say it … I think.

Regardless, the meeting was big because it took place. We could have put off the little things for tomorrow, sure. We could have handled the minutia at another time, but we didn’t. We handled it yesterday, leaving today to handle other small stuff. We made “sweating the small stuff” habitual by working time for it into our daily lives. When you get in the habit of taking care of the little things, you establish a working infrastructure that will prepare you for the huge decisions that will most certainly need to be made.

Yes, indeed, small steps will get you there. Great leaps cannot be made without the small steps to take you to the edge. It may not seem like a big deal at the time, but it is the biggest of things when you realize that you are paving the road to success with consistency. Don’t put off the little things, they really do make a big difference.

What small steps have you made that turned out to be big deals? What can you do today that could conceivably be put off until tomorrow?

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