As the first quarter of the year presses on, many people have abandoned their New Year’s resolutions, and many others are feeling discouraged by their slow progress. A simple but effective way to leave such doldrums behind is to shift one’s focus to little things.
A well-navigated day is one in which each little thing is done or handled well. Each day begins with a blank slate of potential, while fate serves up challenges and opportunities through which we may, if we so choose, grow. Even if only some or just one little thing is managed well, progress has still been made.
When one is solely focused on an outcome and fails to do the work it takes to get there, success will be hard to come by. If, on the other hand, a course is set and then focus shifts to doing each little thing well, success will be the natural outcome. Attention to details, focused action, and careful work can be an antidote to discouragement in life—and you get to begin anew each and every day.
Look Around Your Room
Life is bursting with opportunities to make things just a tiny bit better. Take a look around your room, for example. It likely won’t take you too long to find something out of place, something that needs to be fixed, something that could be cleaned, or some small way that you can improve the space right now. Do that tiny thing immediately and recognize that you’ve already had a positive impact on your life, however small.What other tiny steps can you take right now? Perhaps you noticed a dirty glass in your room and you brought it into the kitchen and put it in the dishwasher. Now that you’re in the kitchen, what might you improve? Perhaps your counter has some crumbs you can clean off or you realize that if you take something out of the freezer now, you can make your family a healthy dinner tonight.
Night Before List
Before retiring for the night, consider your big objectives and then ask yourself: What tiny action could you take tomorrow that would move that goal forward? Perhaps there’s a phone call you could make, an appointment you could set, an email you could send, or a book you could procure that would set you on the path to progress. Put those tiny actions on your to-do list and make them your priority for the coming day.Habits
A significant portion of our daily actions and thoughts are done out of habit. These little habits influence our lives in big ways.
Consider your daily habits and how you might improve them or become more consistent with them. What time do you wake up? What do you do upon waking? What time of day do you do your best work? What do you do each day to support your health and fitness? What are the habits you know would improve your life if you could stick to them consistently?
Take time to think about your habits and then, one at a time, focus on improving and solidifying consistent habits that support your life. Employ the idea of “habit stacking,” in which you stack a new habit on top of an already solidified habit. For example, you probably brush your teeth every morning. What if you also wanted to establish the habit of drinking a certain amount of water each day? You might leave a filled water bottle next to your toothbrush each night so that after brushing your teeth you begin drinking your water. You leverage the already established habit to make forming the new habit easier.
Block Time
Sometimes, we don’t do things because we don’t make any space for them in our day. Blocking certain parts of your day to focus on certain types of tasks can be helpful. Considering your energy levels, your commitments, and your regular routine, you can block out sections of your day to focus in specific ways.For example, the morning might be the best time for you to engage in creative work. Just before dinner might be the best time to quickly tidy up your home or get laundry done.
Attending to Fine Details
Sometimes, in order to take care of the finer details in life and do a good job, what we most need is to slow down.Life can seem to encourage frenetic activity. That’s not necessarily the best state from which to create beauty or excellence, however. Slowing down and focusing in on finer details from time to time, approaching tasks with care and conscientiousness, and allowing space and time to do things well is entirely underrated.
Above and Beyond
When your habits are in check and you’re consistently handling the little tasks of life, you can get to a point where you reach for true excellence. To do outstanding work within any of the many roles you play in life, you want to go above and beyond what’s simply required and take things to a new level. Often, just a little something extra can do just that.For example, a stay-at-home mom has a lot on her plate. She wants to keep a tidy home, raise her children well, care for her husband, keep the laundry going, cook healthy meals, and make sure everyone in her family has what they need to thrive. That might be her basic standard.
To really go the extra mile, she might place a sweet note in her husband’s work bag, decorate the home for the next holiday or celebration, or surprise the kids one afternoon with fresh baked cookies. These little things go above and beyond and take what she’s able to create as a stay-at-home mom to another level. It’s all in the details, as they say.
Life is made up of a whole lot of little things. Rather than lamenting how difficult it is to make giant moves and take bold actions, perhaps focusing on little actions might make all the difference. As they say, “If you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves.”
