The little steps
These tiny yellow flowers add up to form a lovely background for the larger ones.
Keukenhof, the Netherlands, March 2007
“Don’t despise the little steps you know you can take every day. There are tiny miracles in each and every one of them.” ― Israelmore Ayivor
Do you ever have days when you feel like just giving up? I do. Often. In fact, I’m having one today, which I hope will be far behind me by the time this post is published and you read it.
At such times, I tend to feel unfocused and hopeless, even desperate, seeing how many of my attempts to solve difficult problems seem to be making no difference whatsoever. I’m exhausted– out of energy, ideas and optimism. I just want to go off somewhere and escape into sleep. Unfortunately, in my life right now, that’s hardly ever an option.
Usually the only way I can dig myself out of such a pit is to do something, some little thing that I have a fairly good chance of accomplishing. It can be the dishes, or a quick note, or a phone call to schedule an appointment. But it needs to be something that I can get done in five minutes so I will be able to get some psychological oxygen before I smother in failure.
Sometimes it backfires on me when what should be a simple phone call turns into a multi-tiered robotic obstacle course (you know, the kind where you have to listen to endless menu choices to get to yet another menu, then get put on hold, then get disconnected). But usually, one small task leads to another, a trail of pebbles I can follow out of the forest as Hansel and Gretel did.
Not every day is a big-step kind of day. In fact, for me, relatively few of them are. But don’t lose faith in the tiny steps. They add up, and over time, they turn out to be the foundation for a larger success.
One year ago:
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: accomplishment, don't give up, effort, goals, one day at a time, patience, progress, steps, success, time
Defeat Despair 
Thank you for this, Julia.
And the yellow flowers create a very nice visual for many small successes.
You’re welcome. I’m glad your like it. Isn’t yellow just the perkiest color?
Julia, This speaks to me today.
Thanks!
You’re welcome, Mary Ann! I’m glad you found it helpful. ❤
I like that analogy, Julia, following the pebbles to get out of a situation. I’m going to keep that in mind. (And yes, I know what an overwhelming set of circumstances you were dealing with at the time you wrote this — far more challenging than what most of us deal with.)
Susan, thank you so much for your gracious and kind words. I’m still following the pebble trail most days. Today being one of them! I can’t figure out whether my brain is just getting slower, or the tasks are multiplying beyond my ability to juggle them. But getting even a small task done is always a consolation.