Tag Archives: small steps

Day 3348 – Dream Big, Think Small – A Book That Surprisingly Changed Everything – Read A New Book Month Day 10

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I’ve talked about Dream Big, Think Small: Living an Extraordinary Life One Day at a Time* by Jeff Manion before, but it bears repeating during read a new book month, because this one completely changed my life and mindset about small steps.

Before I read this book, I stressed about how much work I was doing on this blog and really, all areas of my life. I felt like what I was working on just wasn’t making a difference in my life. But this book taught me that even little, bitty, baby steps added up to a lot over time. Just the act of showing up and writing for five minutes each day adds up to two and a half hours of writing in a month. Just the act of showing up for this blog every day and writing a few hundred words adds up to about half a million over the lifetime of the blog. I was floored by that one right there. This idea of just reading a few pages every day in a few books adds up to full books read.

If you’re feeling like you’re not making headway on things and find that you’re beating yourself up, this really is the book for you. I point to this book as a huge life-shifting book, and often. What’s funny, is I found it completely randomly. It wasn’t in the new books section, it wasn’t recommended by someone else. I was killing time in the library, and walking the stacks, and found it that way. I don’t do this type of library search often, but I’m so glad I found this book. I read it last year, but it is still helping me to not negate the small stuff I do every day.

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Dream Big, Think Small: Living an Extraordinary Life One Day at a Time*

As a reminder, the links to the book on Amazon are affiliate links. As a reminder, an affiliate link is one that if you click and purchase the book (or something else) I’ll receive a small percentage at no additional cost to you. I ruthlessly only share products, services, books, etc, that I have personally used and only recommend what I think is useful and valuable. I’ve marked all affiliate links in this post with this little guy –> *

This photo is a picture of how I track the “small stuff” in my life. I’ve since modified this to include quite a bit more, but the idea is the same, little bits, every day.

Check out all of my 2018 Read A New Book Month recommendations.

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Day 3195 – One Small Step, Every Day

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Y’ll know, I have LOTS of ideas and dreams and things I want to do. At any given moment, I have half a dozen ideas floating around in my head. But there’s no way I can realistically work on all of them. Ha ha, even outsourcing might not be enough. I have big plans for YouTube, social media channels, my books, and this blog. One thing I hear over and over again is how powerful Pinterest can be as a traffic source. So, I’ve been working on getting my blog ready for that, and cataloging things as I go. I have been working on this for months. In the past, I would have gotten discouraged, thrown up my hands and said, that’s it, this is too much work, I can’t do this.

But then my mindset shifted. I read this book (this is an affiliate link, so if you purchase the book or something else on Amazon, I’ll get a small percentage….this book changed my life and I am ALL for sharing it!)….

Dream Big, Think Small: Living an Extraordinary Life One Day at a Time by Jeff Manion

The idea is that you can accomplish a lot, just by showing up every day, even if it’s in small ways. This has helped me to see my five minutes a day working on getting ready for Pinterest in a much different way. Instead of thinking, “man, this is just not worth it, it’s so little every day!” I think, “I am one blog post closer to finishing.” Some days I can do a few posts, some I only do one. I am so close to the finish line and I’ve gotten here by just plugging away at it.

So friends, no matter what you’re working towards, don’t beat yourself up if you think it’s only a small step each day. You’re still moving.

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
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Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget.
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
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Day 3152 – Starting Again

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Ah, I am totally a list maker who makes lists of the lists I need to make. I am a collector of goals. I am ambitious of a lot.

In some respects, I feel I lost my way, my momentum, and focus on my goals. I seemed to forget that even super tiny progress towards a goal is still progress. Even reading a few pages of a 600 page book is still a step. Even editing or writing one page is still one more page than I had before.

I had a renewed excitement about my goals this weekend, I reprinted my daily checklist to highlight (oh man was I doing poorly with that!) I reprinted our floss journey (I was also not as consistent). This way, I won’t see the failures and inconsistencies of the past few weeks, I will see my fresh start and current consistency.

How can you start again today?

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Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
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Day 2944 – How I Wrote A Book In Six Months – or – Eat The Elephant One Bite At A Time

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I’m not one to lie to you or to give a pretty picture of my life. I’ve put myself out there in pretty much all the ways that you can. There’s so much on the internet about how people don’t show the hard and gritty side of life. The hustle, basically. I hope that I give you my honest life. So in that vein, a few days ago, I was not doing well at all. I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I felt like I was never going to complete my to do list. I felt like a failure at so many things in my life.

Thankfully, I didn’t stay there long. I was reminded that a completed to do list will never happen. There are so many more important things to worry about than an incomplete to do list. I have skills to do the things I need to do. But my biggest realization over the last few days is that big things happen when you’re faithful with the small and the daily. There are certain things I do every day, and almost every day, and they have built up to big accomplishments. I think my biggest accomplishment is this blog. I’ve blogged every day since April of 2011. There were a few days in the beginning that I missed, and there are a few posts that have been removed, but I have shown up every day. Even though it’s a different type, I am writing every day. I have written just shy of 2,300 posts. I have blogged for 78% of my marriage. I didn’t realize these numbers until right now, but I am amazed at them. I have severely underestimated the power of small steps.

I’m grateful for a book I randomly found at the library Dream Big, Think Small by Jeff Manion (This is an affiliate link to Amazon. This means I will get a small percentage if you buy this book or something else. I only share affiliate links to things I have used. This book changed my life and I highly recommend it). It can be read cover to cover quickly, but he recommends reading a chapter a day. I’m taking this route. I keep the book with with my bible and journal as a reminder to read the chapter after my devotions. It has been such an encouragement. It has made me want to think of more ways to add small routines into my daily life.

So how did I write a book* in six months? I worked on it slowly, as much as I could in a day. I didn’t work on it every day, but each small step, each short editing/writing session took me another step closer. Today marks three months on my alcoholism memoir. I’m not sure how much longer it will take to finish, as it’s a whole other type of project. It reminds me of the process of writing my first book* – one where it’s about growing and changing me in the process. It’s really starting to take shape, I’m in the “taking all the ramblings and putting them in a sensible order” stage.

Don’t underestimate the power of taking one bite of your elephant every day. And don’t think writing only 10-15 minutes a day won’t add up to your book one day.

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* Amazon Affiliate link
Did you like what you read? Here’s some ways you can support us and this blog!
Join our Facebook group, Planning an Epic Road Trip on Any Budget
Join the Journey With The G’s email list (bonus – you get my Epic Road Trip Budget spreadsheet)
Buy my book, Planning an Epic Road Trip on any Budget
Buy my book, Trusting God With 2 Cents: 22 Days To Becoming A Successful Christian Business Owner.
Shop on Amazon (no additional cost to you, this gives us a percentage of what you order).
Check out our resources page.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel