Small Things Add Up | Motivation Monday Spokane

Great things are built one small step at a time. #MotivationMonday

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.” – Vincent van Gogh

There’s something about a new week that makes it tempting to think big.

We think about the project we want finished, the habit we want established, the relationship we want to strengthen, or the goal that still feels a long way off. The destination gets most of our attention because it’s easy to see.

What’s harder to see are all the ordinary days required to get there.

Most progress probably won’t feel particularly impressive while it’s happening. It might be getting up and going for the run you almost skipped. Making time for a conversation instead of putting it off. Finishing one task that has been hanging over you. Or simply doing today what you said yesterday you were going to do.

None of those things seems particularly significant on its own.

But string enough of them together and something changes.

That’s what I appreciate about van Gogh’s observation. Great things rarely arrive as one great thing. They are assembled from much smaller pieces.

So my focus this week isn’t to accomplish everything. It’s to identify the small things worth doing and then do them consistently.

Maybe that’s a useful question for the rest of us, too:

What small thing, repeated consistently, would make the biggest difference a month from now?