If you can’t do great things now, start doing small things in a great way

“If I can’t do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Sometimes when we see other people’s success, we feel discouraged. It’s like so-and-so just released a book and it hit the bestseller list. Or so-and-so launches a product and reaches a sold-out status.

Therefore, we set high standards for ourselves and strive to do the same, if not better. We have high expectations of who we should be and what we should do and push ourselves to achieve them.

But it doesn’t always work. When we feel weighed down by the enormity of our goals and stressed by the need to do great things, it fails and we do nothing.

Days turned into weeks, then months, and as we held on to our big goal, waiting for the perfect moment to achieve it, nothing happened. “We said we would do it if we had time.

If this is happening to you right now, know this: If you’re unable to do great things right now for whatever reason—maybe you have a full-time job, or you’re becoming a stay-at-home parent, or you’re stuck in a certain life situation—then start by doing small things in a great way.

This means,

• If your goal is to create a food channel, start by perfecting your recipes in your own kitchen.
• If your goal is to develop the next big app, start by developing simple tools that solve people’s pain points.
• If your goal is to become a best-selling author, start by improving your writing skills through short-form writing such as blog posts.
• If your goal is to become a YouTuber, start by creating simple videos that convey your ideas well.

No matter what big goal you’ve put off, ask yourself: What’s one small thing I can do well right now?

It’s easy to overlook small things in favor of big goals. But in the long run, your results are built on the small steps you take today.

• The athlete wins the game because he has Follow his exercise regime every day.
• One singer got her big break because she Performed many small gigs, which helped hone her vocals and develop her stage presence. Stefani Germanotta performed in gigs and clubs across New York before being discovered in 2006. She later adopted the moniker Lady Gaga, won 13 Grammy Awards, and became one of the best-selling music artists in the world.⁽¹⁾
• A writer becomes a best-selling author because he has Spent years building up his expertise and writing skills. Malcolm Gravel is the author of five books new york times bestsellers including critical point. Before writing his first book, he worked as a journalist for nine years, covering business and science, and later in new yorker. There he wrote two articles, “The Tipping Point” and “Cool Hunting,” which attracted attention and laid the foundation for his first book – critical point.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾
  Gladwell said of his writing: “I started out as a loser, but by the end I felt like an expert. It took a lot of time.” 10 years——It’s just that long. “⁽⁴⁾

At our core, we are not what we will one day do. What we do today is who we are, and we become who we want to be through what we do every day.

If you think doing small things today doesn’t seem like a big deal, consider this: 1% improvement every day for 365 days will lead to 37x improvement.⁽⁵⁾

• (1 + 1%)³⁶⁵ = (1.01)³⁶⁵ = 37.78

This means that a little progress on your part might not be a big deal to you, but over time you’ll get to where you want to be.

Start by working on the small things and doing them well.

Remember, it’s not the big goal you’re trying to achieve at any given moment that’s important. This is what you do now, today. The little things you do determine who you become.

so What is one small thing you can do today? How can you do this little thing well?

read: The power of small changes