If you listen long enough to the success gurus out there, you'll hear things like "you're not playing big enough" or "you're thinking too small!" And a lot of the time they are right. Small mindedness and inaction are Wonder Twin powers of dream killing.
But sometimes in our effort to "take the world by storm" and "10X" our lives, something anti-productive occurs: Overwhelm. Sometimes we aim so big and so far that the gap between where we are and where we want to be becomes unfathomably large. We set goals so huge they drown our spirit and shut us down. The distance needed to travel feels so big we can't even wrap our heads around it. So we abandon it. We stop. We give up.
And that is assuming, of course, that we even started at all.
Yes, there is a time and a place for thinking big and taking massive action. But if you're not to that place yet it your personal journey, consider approaching your goals and dreams from the opposite direction. Try playing small, or at least smaller.
Jonathan Kozol wisely said, "Choose battles big enough to matter and small enough to win."
Pick goals worthy of your best efforts, but small enough to be attainable. Preferably quickly. Because each successive victory will spur you on—it will give you the energy and enthusiasm to continue moving forward boldly and nobly.
Recently, I went on a camping trip to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes in Utah. The desert views and sunsets were spectacular. The sand was soft and fine—almost like baby powder. But what really caught my attention were these little sand beetle tracks, crisscrossing in all directions. They were everywhere. Some of them went for hundred of yards. These tiny bugs made tremendous journeys one little step at a time.
What if your new mantra was "You're not thinking SMALL enough. You're playing too BIG"? How would your world change from that new perspective? How would that affect your choices and actions? What would you do different?
Give it a try. If it doesn't work, you can always go back to the old way.
