Do. Act. Work.
The many “get stuff done” mantras about the internet can sometimes make you feel like a complete slacker, desperately analyzing your own world to see if you actually accomplished anything today. Not that I would know anything about that.
It’s all the rage to be an ass-kicker, reminding folks that it’s not talking that counts, but doing, dammit.
What we don’t say often enough is that “doing” stuff is sometimes rather small, in tiny increments of progress that might not be noticeable to the outside world. Today, my doing might be editing a few really important paragraphs of a document. Yours might be not panicking when you walk into the kids’ room and see the toys all over the floor, leaving them for another day in favor of doing yoga for yourself or reading a book. For someone over there, doing might be a few tedious housekeeping tasks, like updating social profiles after changing jobs. Getting something done can even be not doing something that supports an old habit that isn’t useful.
Doing isn’t always about setting the world on fire.
It’s awesome to get fired up and want to build the palace, but we do that by hammering a single nail at a time, sometimes quietly and without fanfare. It’s a lesson I’ve learned myself. And every day, I see people all over the interwebz lost in a quagmire of self-flagellation on a day where they didn’t feel like they got anything done, or expressing remorse and regret in the comments of someone’s “what have you really done lately” post.
The little things do matter, even when you can’t put them on your portfolio page or your client case studies. After all, the only way we ever get to where we’re going is to keep moving toward the destination. You know where that is, and all the little bits it takes to get there.
Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Excellent point, Amber. I think that’s precisely why we have inaction in the first place. People get so overwhelmed by the big, hairy audacious goal that they forget that it just takes a bunch of tiny actions and steps to get there. When we break things down, it makes our goals and all that “doing” much easier to accomplish.
Starting small always works to kick start anything!
Amber – in praise of doing small things really well, thank you for validating the ‘normal’ days where we kick-ankles instead of a**. Much like a career, a relationship, or even a big project, it’s little things being done well that can make add up to a major difference. In fact, history is full of the little things making *all* the difference.
Thank you!!!
ironically enough, this post reminds me that i’ve wanted to invite you to be a guest on #beonfire. maybe we can do a chat on the great importance of ankle-kicking, as jr schmitt so nicely phrased it?
tonight’s was an open mic on “tenacity.” why? because i’m struggling to get into/stick to a regular training program for my first ever “race” type thing next summer.
it’s the little things.
Like the old -and true- saying goes:
“Rome wasn’t built in a day”.
So, keep on building your Romes, one stone at a time.Thanks for another great post, Amber.
I LOVE this post. Sometimes it’s those smaller tedious tasks that are the hardest to get done. I can totally relate!
Baby steps as they say & you keep seeing the results as you go along . . .