Bigger is NOT Always Better
3 “little” life lessons
Sometimes bigger is indeed better. Back in my high school days, when it came to hair, you better believe, bigger was better! Money in your bank account? Again, bigger is better.
However, bigger is not necessarily better. I have always been a fan of the little, the small, the miniature. Small things are quite simply…cute. The miniature pony, cute. A puppy or kitten, adorable. But in addition to being cute, I want to show how “little” things, little life lessons, can be beneficial to your well-being.
“Little” accomplishments can be as exciting as big ones.
I encourage you to make little, bite-sized goals. They feel much more attainable and can be celebrated sooner and more frequently! For example: Perhaps you have a goal to lose 20 pounds this year, stating that you would like to lose 4 pounds per month for the next 5 months accomplishes the exact same thing. Having a 4-pound weight loss goal to tackle feels infinitely more achievable than 20 pounds. Am I right? You are more likely to stay motivated with your weight loss journey, and the best part, in my opinion, is that you will be able to celebrate 5 wins along the way!
When tackling a big project or goal, it can be overwhelming to try to focus on the entirety of it. Sometimes the goal is so grand, the project so large, that “analysis paralysis” sets in. If you are not familiar with that term, it is when overanalyzing or overthinking a situation can cause forward motion or decision-making to become “paralyzed”, meaning no solution or course of action is taken within a natural time frame. Sound familiar now? Sometimes trying to figure out where to begin can result in not beginning at all.
Herein lies the wisdom of determining those smaller, incremental tasks necessary to accomplish the task or goal. What needs to be done first? What needs to be done today? These are great questions to get started with. Or is there a little task that can actually be accomplished today, or maybe in the next 15 minutes, that will get you closer to the big goal? Then do that one thing today, right now.
Little tasks add up. Little accomplishments add up. Knowing you have started and completed at least one task today, that is chipping away at your goal or project, will make you feel good about yourself and keep you motivated.
Grandiose expectations can backfire, try lowering them…just a “little” bit.
Let’s face it, things rarely go as planned. There are always variables out of your control that can throw a wrench into the outcome, or timeline, of your carefully thought-out plans. I do want you to dream big and set big goals for yourself! But I also want you to be cognizant of what variables you control and to measure your success around those variables.
When it comes to expectations surrounding holidays or special occasions, the idea of keeping them “little”, or “simplistic”, seems very wise. The smaller or simpler your expectations are, the more room there will be to be impressed, surprised, or overjoyed by the outcome, versus disappointed if they fall flat.
There is beauty in finding “little” things to be grateful for.
I love a gratitude practice, and highly encourage it. There are many strategies for keeping track of things you are grateful for. You may keep a gratitude journal or diary. Perhaps you make it a point to write down ten things you are grateful for each morning or before you go to sleep at night. There is no right or wrong technique or a magic number of entries you need to reach. What is important, however, is that you find things in your day to be grateful for!
I have kept several different types of gratitude journals in the past, with varying degrees of success. I often felt the “list a certain number of things to be grateful for each day” types of practices started to feel more obligatory rather than something I truly looked forward to doing each day. I also found myself repeating the same things each day. That exercise never felt productive to me.
But then I started to focus on finding something little to be grateful for each day! It could be as simple as finding joy in seeing a flower growing out of a crack in a sidewalk, or the giggle that overcomes me every time I see a dog sitting in the driver seat of a parked car (knowing he’s got everybody fooled into thinking he drove there!). But by giving myself the assignment to find something little, from that very day, to be grateful for, I started to be on the lookout for things to be grateful for. My gratitude practice was now fun, because I was searching for the little things.
Do not think it needs to be grand to be important. “If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.” – William H. McRaven
