The New Year: To get big you need small (Part 2)

Alright people. Here we go. March is almost over. Which means that about a quarter of the year is already gone.  How are those resolutions doing?  I would answer and say they’re going horribly but I have faith that what I wrote last time actually inspired some people to actually stick through it and fight to achieve their new year resolution(s).

In part one of The New Year post I talked about how stupid and pointless new year resolutions are.  To recap I think they serve no purpose if you’re not going to adhere to them throughout the year.  I also think if it takes the dawn of a new year for you to decide to change your life then you’re not really serious about making that change.  We’re all different though, I gotta see it to believe it and I’m just not the person to go about it like that (hence why I use my birthday...I’m more inclined to hold myself to it that way).

Now here in part 2 I will concede that there are people out there that do want to make changes and are serious about it.  Even if it took the dawn of the new year to realize it.  Now how do you go about making those changes you seek stick?  It’s the little things.  Before continuing here are some statements to take note of...

To get big you need small.
Get better every day.
To build a house you need a lot of little individual bricks.
Rome wasn’t built in a day....etc.

My personal favorite though is what one of my college coaches used to tell us all the time and that is “success is the byproduct of doing a lot of little things right” (or something like that). What he was basically trying to say (or how I interpreted it) was that success doesn’t come because you just woke up one day and did something right and now you’re successful. You have to focus on all the little things first.  Only after all those little things have been properly done do you become successful.

---

My personal suggestion to achieving your goals whether it be a new year resolution or you just want to make a change in your life is to really think about what it is you’re trying to do.  The first thing that’ll come to you is the big picture i.e. the final result and what you want it to look like when you achieve it.  The next thing you have to do is think hard and figure out how to and what you have to do to get to that point.  Once that is done, you break it down one more time to a specific action. This specific action is the "little thing" I am referring to.  It is the small you need before you can reach big. Breaking it down to this simple level is what puts you on the path to achieving what your goal is.

I’ll use myself as an example.  I remember a couple years ago, I told myself that I wanted to have a better relationship with God.  I had school, I had basketball, and all that to worry about so how would I go about it.  I thought about it, went through the process I just outlined and gave myself a simple task.  I told myself that I had to pray every day. It didn’t matter when but I had to pray at least once a day.  A little task but it went a long way.

At first it started out with me making sure that I prayed every morning.  Of course there were mornings that I’d forget so I’d remember in the middle of the day and right then and there I’d have my personal moment and talk to God.  At night, when I would look over my day and remember that I had not prayed at all that day I would say a prayer.  Even if I did happen to have prayed that day I would pray anyways.  Half the time I ended up not even asking for anything in the prayer but rather thanking God for all my blessings to date.  A couple months later I realized that it had become a regularity for me to pray a couple of time a day.  At the very least it was once a day.  By this point praying and talking to God had become a habit and I didn’t have to think about it anymore.  That small daily action helped me achieve my big goal.

When doing things you have to start small.  It's like saying you want to save more and spend less. You're not going to wake up tomorrow and do that. You're going to start small and build your way up. So you start small by saving a couple of dollars here and there. Then it becomes a ten more dollars here and ten more dollars there. Then it becomes a hundred here and a hundred there and so on and so forth.  Whether you know it or not you already have certain habits (I'm referring to the bad ones) cultivated that are deeply engrained in your system.  Giving yourself these small tasks is a way of chipping away and breaking down the old habits and replacing them with new and improved ones.
 
In conclusion, I really hope you all are able to achieve all the goals you set for yourself this year.  I hope my little opinion on how to go about it helps in that process.  I’m not saying it is THE way but I am definitely saying it is A way to get it done.

Yours truly,

Magnificent Su

---