You’ve probably heard the saying, “Beginning is half done.”  But how do you get yourself to begin when it seems so overwhelming?  Thoughts like, “It’s way too much for me!”, or “I can never finish, so why even start?!”, come into your head.

The solution?  Telling yourself, “Yeah, it’s a lot.  But I can do a little bit now and leave the rest for later.”  Then it doesn’t seem so overwhelming. 

Just giving ourselves permission to only do the little that we can, relieves us.  Now we don’t have to feel guilty if we can’t get it all done at once. I’ve discovered that we tend to avoid whatever makes us feel guilty.  For example, when we haven’t written someone for too long then we’re afraid to write them because it’s been so long!

Remove the sense of guilt over “failing” and we remove the avoidance of starting in, because we’ve also removed the fear of trying and failing.

That’s when we realize that we can succeed— little by little, time on time off.  If there’s a deadline, those “little”s may have to be done faster, more frequently, but we can still take the whole thing in manageable increments. 

Many, if not all, cultures get this.  In America we say, “Inch by inch the job’s a cinch (easy).”  Indonesians say, “Sedikit demi sedikit menjadi bukit.”, which means “Little by little it becomes a hill.”  Turks say, “Damlaya damlaya gol olur.”—“Drop by drop it becomes a lake.” 

I remember the Indonesian and Turkish sayings because that’s what they encouraged us with for language-learning when we lived there!  And even though Turkish took longer than Indonesian to learn, we learned both—bit by bit, building on, and enjoying the process.  We celebrated the growth, not expecting or feeling like we had to learn it all at once!

No one expects to learn a whole new language in a day.  Sadly, because of this, some people feel too overwhelmed to even try.  So, they don’t start.  Then they can’t really function, let alone thrive, in that culture, and either live hampered, limited, and isolated, or go home in defeat.

But what if they took this approach?: “This language is going to take some time and effort to learn—I’d better get started now, bit by bit, opportunity by opportunity, whenever I can!”  Even if they don’t master the language, they’ll still have a much better time and relationships in that culture than if they never tried! 

I get it, language-learning is not for everyone, and not everyone has to do it, although I do recommend it in an increasingly global society.  But the same principle applies to the necessities of daily life and work.

For example—a sink full of dishes.  I’ve discovered that if I just look at them piling up, I’ll keep leaving them for “when I can get them done. Too many for now.”  Anyone else ever done that?  Or, worse yet, tried passing them off onto someone else in the household?

Thankfully for both myself and the rest of my household, I also discovered that if I tell myself, “I’ll just do a little bit now…”, I actually start.  And sometimes keep going—telling myself all the while, “Oh, I can do a few more while I’m here.”  And then, sometimes, before I know it, they’re all done—washed—and the sink and kitchen counter are clean—and wow, do I ever feel great about that!

Let’s apply this to other overwhelms in life. 

• Work projects— If it’s all on you, and the boss is asking for it to be done yesterday—tell him/her you’re on it—better you on it than it on you (you underneath it)!  Back that up with showing daily progress.  The corporate leaders I coach all express how they need reports and updates.  They understand obstacles, complexities, and the enormity of completing some projects, as long as they know their direct reports are working on it and keeping them in the loop.

–If you’re part of a team effort, no one expects you to finish your part all at once immediately.  But everyone appreciates each member doing what they can when they can, making progress, and reporting in for accountability and support.

–If you are the boss/director, keep this in mind when driving delivery– bit by bit gets it done, and driving people too hard could cause them to give up or stall from over-pressure.

• Home projects—Wives, husbands, parents—which do you prefer— the person responsible working on it, or not knowing if they’re even aware or care?!  “Yeah, sure.”, or no response just produces nagging and anger.  Starting to fix, clean, cook, whatever goes a long way in showing care and respect.
• Creative projects—Oh how we long to write a book, paint a painting, make a set of furniture, create a song, make a film, sew an outfit, …  All of that major creation starts with an idea, a blank page, and/or untouched material.  It gets done word by word, brush stroke by brush stroke, wood-piece by piece, line by line and note by note, clip by clip, stitch by stitch.  Until one day, there it is, a work of art.
• Becoming an expert—Those ten thousand hours of learning and training the experts tell us we need to become experts?  They each start with the first minute and continue with more minutes.

We’re in good company when we do things little by little—the Lord Himself did this:

“Little by little I will drive them out before you, until you have increased enough to take possession of the land.” Ex. 23:30

You get the idea.  “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”  But someone, many ones, did build it—block by block.  Inch by inch.  Or, if you’re part of most of the world, centimeter by centimeter—although it’s harder to find a good rhyme for that!  Centimeter by centimeter fills up a liter.  How about that one? 

How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time! 😊

Your turn…