“We need to stop shopping for lightning bolts. The way out of our paralysis is simpler than that: It’s about thinking small and thinking gradual.”
– Seth Godin
This quote is from an article Seth wrote for Fast Company in 2003. I definitely recommend reading it. Heck, I recommend reading anything Seth writes. Done? Great. So as you just read, he’s writing about business and marketing. About how the really great companies make small, slow changes that compound in metaphorical interest until they “become unstoppable.”
This is phenomenal advice for business, and it’s just as applicable to your life as well.
In this new year, the time when many of us formulate our resolutions for changes to be made, I would like to lovingly urge you to think small & gradual. Want to devote more time to business development? Put a half-hour time block on your calendar once a week for the next several weeks. Want to exercise more? Start with a 5-minute walk or 1 push-up.
You have to let the habit become part of your life before you can allow it to gradually grow. That is the only way you’ll achieve sustainable and meaningful shifts in whatever you do.
There is no “get rich quick” scheme for change. But you know what? There’s exactly enough time for what you are doing in life. Trust that, and take it one small step at a time.
Happy New Year! I hope it’s a series of small, intentionally placed, wonderful steps for you.
