By the time I was in law school, I was already a well-known consultant, very busy professionally, and often asked myself, especially when hitting the books, “Why am I putting myself in this misery?”
It was then that I was reminded of a saying I first heard from a client:
“Five by centimeter is a piece of cake; meter by meter, it’s hard!”
Unquestionably, this saying tells us the wise way to do something great, challenging, magnificent or unprecedented. You have to break it down into bite-sized bites.
If you try to devour the entire project, or bite off more than you can chew, it will kill you in record time.
Right now, I’m dealing with a current challenge that requires the same approach, one step at a time: writing articles.
My goal is very challenging. I am committed to writing hundreds of pieces, being more prolific than ever. But I realize that, having completed important tasks in the past, if I focus on the sheer number, the ultimate goal, it will seem too far away and daunting.
So, I’m taking the inch by inch approach.
I tell myself that the big number will come soon enough, if I just commit to keep moving forward, no matter how small or minuscule.
So some days, I do a complete takeoff from writing, but I’m still considering what my future topics will be. That’s progress, still, and I need to interpret it this way, to stay positive.
If I stop to question the merit of the project in general, I will slow down my progress, so the original decision will not be questioned. It must be standing.
Having committed, truly given to the task, I can slow down, be more casual, more happily incremental about my progress.
It always works, this small approach is beautiful, and I recommend it to you!