There are a lot of steps in that image; one, two, three — okay, I’m not going to count each one, but it looks to be roughly “many,” give or take. Now, imagine that this staircase is a project and reaching the top is representative of completing said project. There are a couple of options that would increase the likelihood of failure:
- attempt to jump to the last few steps in one, initial leap and either hurt yourself or quit when you didn’t magically make it to the top
- look up at how many steps there are and feel overwhelmed enough to petrify in place and never start
Personally, I am guilty of absolutely both of these. I have improved in these areas tremendously over the years, but they still occasionally rear their head. Case in point, a few weeks ago I had to overcome option 2, and I thought it worth addressing here.
I Just Want To Write!
When I first started this site, I designed it all from the ground up. We use blogging software, yes, but I created the whole visual layout myself. That takes a while, especially when my coding knowledge is only light hobby level. And as hard as I worked on it, over time little errors had started to pop up here and there anyways. Our website was operational, but it had some back-end annoyances and design issues that needed to be fixed.
That isn’t a problem when the site is going unused for months at a time, but this is where my problem came in.
I enjoy creative writing. It’s something I’ve fallen in and out of habit with, but I recently chose to push back through it again and finish a few little tales I’d started. This site is a great venue to be able to host my short stories, but I didn’t want to have to go through a huge ordeal of hunting down errors and making the site work well enough to direct folks to it again.
So, I stood at the base of those steps and looked up, almost petrified. The top of the stairs was publishing my next short story on our site here, but the many steps between me and that goal not only included the actual writing and editing, but also fixing up the site by redesigning, teaching myself new code, and hunting down tons of errors as I rebuild it all up again from semi-scratch. That’s a lot of steps for that goal, but it’s also unnecessarily complicated.
Tip #1: Simplify, maaaan!
If your goal seems far away, analyze the steps to see if they need to be as complex as initially thought.
Look, what is the point of this site? Well, it’s a blog and occasionally I may host a short story. That’s about it. I don’t need to overcomplicate things by having complete control over the design and focusing so much on the aesthetic when that really isn’t what anyone’s going to come here for. There are tons of serviceable pre-made designs that I could use with a simply click of a button, so I did exactly that! Boom, I just shrunk the number of steps between me and the top goal, but there were still plenty to go.
Tip #2: Just focus on the one step in front of you!
Worrying about steps 22-68 doesn’t do much for you if you’re still standing on step 5.
These aren’t new or revolutionary ideas I’m sharing here, but even as I push towards my 40th birthday next year, I still need regular reminders about these things — maybe you do, too!
So, my final bit of advice here is to look at just what’s in front of you. This, for me, extends into so many areas of my life. There are several things I like to do each morning (read my Bible, exercise, shower, etc.), but if I am even just a few minutes late in getting out of bed, it is very easy to just throw the whole plan out because I don’t have time to do everything. That’s a great way to never get things done, and at that, I’m a pro! 🙂
If I had just look at my goal and all of the steps between us, it’s really easy to give up then and there. I could just stand there petrified at the idea of even starting, overwhelmed by not only the volume of steps, but also the variety (first I have to do this, and only then can I do that, then this other thing comes after). So, I have to just look at the step in front of me. In the present example, that meant finding a pre-made theme I liked and just going with it. If I was worrying over the 15th step ahead, I’d just stand there daydreaming about that step and not looking at my feet.
This tip also relates to leaping too far ahead. I recently took up woodworking as a hobby interest, and if my first project had been some intricately detailed, hard-to-craft beast, I wouldn’t have succeeded. That’s fact. I haven’t developed the skills and obtained the knowledge needed for such an endeavor, and by trying to leap so far ahead, I’d just be setting myself up for failure.
So, that’s what I made. It’s a punch-needle gripper frame for Sydney (pictured here before the strips of grip were stapled on), so I was lucky in that it didn’t have to be beautiful.
And it wasn’t, haha!
But the glue held, it was square and even, and I didn’t die making it. Most importantly, it serves the purpose it was built for and I learned through it. That’s a success! It’s also steps 1-3 of my moving towards building something much more intricate. As it is now, my workbench is a mess with tools and sawdust from other things, the garage is filled to the brim with scrap wood I’ve picked up for free from Craigslist (current project: sorting and storage!), and I’m already planning my next creation of some simple hanging shelves for our home, which may end up taking me no further than step 4… and I’m cool with that.
Just Keep Swimming
So, that’s my spiel. I’ve redesigned our site to be simple and not need me fiddling with it every year or so when coding rules change. I’ve set myself up to be able to write a short story and share it online without any extra complications. And the advice I’ve shared here is just as apt when it comes to the actual writing process, too. And the woodworking process.
And just about everything else in life!
I’ve given myself a soft deadline for when my next short story is coming, so I’ll be sure to share that when it’s live, but until then, here’s some encouragement from Papa Mark:
Whatever your mountain of steps is, whether it’s a direct route or a bunch of smaller stairways needed to get to the top, just keep at it. One step at a time.
Or maybe two if you’re feeling a bit saucy. 🙂