Accomplish Something Big by Doing Something Small

by David Berky

Many of us have big dreams, grandiose ideas or large projects we have to or would like to accomplish. Whether it is for our job, our business, a new business, an invention, or just a personal goal, we all seem to have something large looming on our To Do list.

But have you ever found yourself putting off that large project simply because it was so large? You may not know where to start. You may feel like you are not ready to start. You may be afraid of not being able to finish or accomplish a project so large.

How do you overcome these feelings and thoughts? How do great people or people who do great things actually accomplish their monumental triumphs? Do they just wake up one morning and cry "Eureka!"? Or do they all of a sudden decide to produce their masterpiece? I say "No". Even an inventor who comes up with a great idea still has a long road ahead. The idea in itself is usually not the monumental task. It's the process of bringing that idea into reality that is usually the "big project".

And what if you don't feel like you are ready to start? What if you don't have the resources to see the project through? How can you overcome this initial obstacle? I say, "Just do something!" A small step is better than no step at all, and large accomplishments are made up of small significant steps.

Plan It Out

There are two ways to start on your project and one of those is to take a few moments and create a plan. (We'll talk about the other one later on.) Visualize the steps needed to accomplish your goal. Write each step out and put them in order. You may have some steps that have question marks. You may have some areas where you are not sure exactly what you are going to do or what you need to do. That's ok. Your plan doesn't have to be perfect.

Most plans change as time goes on, as you gain more experience, and as you try and learn new things. The main goal of your plan is just to get you started.

Once you have started you can see the first few steps that need to be done. What if those steps are also too big to "leap in a single bound"? Rinse and repeat. Take each of those unfathomable steps and break them down into smaller steps. Write down the things that are needed to accomplish each of those steps. Again question marks are ok. You just need to get your brain thinking about the problem in manageable chunks.

Next you may want to assign a time frame or due date for each step. This gives you a series of smaller goals and a measuring stick to track their progress. We all know (and have experienced) the importance of deadlines. Most deadlines are imposed by someone other than ourselves, so a self-imposed deadline may not feel as important. But if you respect the deadline and commit yourself to accomplishing just this one little task, you will be more likely to actually do it.

As you begin to step through your plan and make your minor accomplishments you will begin to see the project take shape. You will gain momentum and confidence in your ability to accomplish your task. Although you need to periodically review and evaluate your overall plan, try to stay focused on the next goal or step. Don't let yourself become overwhelmed with the entirety of the project.

Even if you can't see how you will accomplish the next goal, focus on the current one and concentrate on getting that done. Often we must take a step or two into the dark before we can see the light. We may need to step out of our comfort zone or go beyond our area of expertise before we even realize how to accomplish the next step.

Also don't get discouraged if you come to a roadblock. Imagine that your project is to develop a way to transport something from one place to another without using any of the currently known methods. (This may have been what Thomas A. Edison felt like when he took on the project of creating light using none of the then-known methods.) Don't be afraid to plan for some testing or consultation with others outside of your field. You may even want to have someone inside or outside of your area review your plan or talk over your progress. You never know when something someone else says or does will unlock your creativity or outright solve your problem.

Just Jump In

But what if you don't even know where to start? I mentioned earlier that there were two ways to start your project. The second is to skip the planning and just start. No plan, no ideas, no worries. Just start doing something that you think will move you in the right direction. Use your knowledge of the current situation, science, thoughts, and philosophies and design some steps that let you test out some ideas. Testing and trials are a legitimate set of steps in accomplishing a goal.

The software development department here at Simple Joe, Inc. is a very small, tight-knit group of people. We don't have the resources (or patience) to sit down and completely map out every detail of the software we design. Instead, in order to save money and to create our software products faster, we often just start throwing together some ideas. We jump in and start writing the computer code and trying different scenarios.

You may ask, "Doesn't this mean that you waste a lot of time, chase a lot of wild geese and go down a lot of blind alleys?" That's one way to look at it, but we don't see it that way. We see ourselves as modern day Thomas Edisons. We don't know exactly what will work or in what ways our products will be successful until we put something together and try it out.

We have found that it is very hard to plan something to exact specifications when you really aren't sure what you want in the first place. How will you know if one way works better than another does unless you try both ways? We try this and we try that. We test it this way and then test it that way and see which works better. We share our ideas and our products with people and get their reactions and ideas.

And as we see what works best and what is liked best, we begin to solidify the features and design of the software. Rather than building a product and then trying to sell it in hopes that people will like it, we already know people will like it because they have already tested it and told us what they like and don't like.

The point is not to get stuck before you start. Find a way to get started whether it means mapping out each step or just jumping right in and mucking around. As the saying goes: The journey begins with the first step. And as we say here at Simple Joe software: Large accomplishments are made up of small significant steps.

David Berky is president of Simple Joe, Inc., makers of easy-to-use PC software featuring the world's easiest accounting software, Income & Expenses. Visit the Simple Joe website at http://www.simplejoe.com/incomeexpenses/
 

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