The power of small steps.
And I'm not talking about tiptoeing.
I'm talking about tiny, imperceptible motions forward that add up to progress.
Like Beau Miles, who ran one mile each hour for 24 hours. A slow marathon, while "the rest of the time [I] do as much as possible; making things, odd jobs, fixing stuff. It's about running, doing, and thinking."
Sounds crazy. (But if you didn't know, that's exactly my kind of crazy. Just wait until you hear about my June race in a couple weeks.)
It's easy to disregard these small steps. Especially when it feels insignificant, like a 5-minute break.
Thomas Edison said, "everything comes to him who hustles while he waits." So many times it's easy to take a 5-minute break. We deserve breaks after all.
But you can take advantage of that "dead time" to do something small. Something positive to take a small step.
Just think.
Five minutes a day by the end of the year adds up to more than 30 hours spent working on yourself or helping others. Thirty minutes a day adds up to over one week of the year.
Do that workout. Send the card. Say 'Good Job.' Learn the language. Take those steps. There's no shortage of resources. For me, I sometimes tweak or write for Circle Three. It's changed a lot over twenty newsletters!
This simple, repeated action doesn't feel like any progress is made, though. It's repetitive and can become grueling. Like Beau running a 1-mile-per-hour marathon, it's made of small increments that add up over time. Whether it's a marathon, laying bricks, or job applications, the process is mentally and physically draining.
Finally you cross the finish line and take a look back. They weren't necessarily fast, and maybe didn't feel like progress was being made. But you can point and say "I did that."
I'm always surprised when I look at my Apple Watch data to see my exercise totals. I spent almost three full days doing physical activity last month, clocking 61 hours and 28 minutes. But spending time each day skiing, stretching, walking, or training certainly adds up quickly. It's good for the brain, good for the body, and a great way to explore.
Maybe the most rewarding part of the process is to look back, reflect, and acknowledge the progress and accomplishments that have sprung up from the process. Beautiful things can come out of the "dead time" in our days.
Beautiful things can come out of a few small steps.
Jay Clouse email: The Power of Imperceptible Progress
In some ways, my business is similar to February 2018: I still run the Unreal Collective Accelerator and I still have freelance clients.
But in most ways, it's very, very different. Since that time, I've created:
- 7 courses with LinkedIn Learning
- 3 courses through Freelancing School
- A new podcasting course
- 2 podcasts (upside and Creative Elements) with nearly 200 episodes combined
- Hundreds of articles and newsletters like this one
- Dozens of affiliate relationships that bring in a collective several hundred dollars per month
- A full-length documentary
I'm not bringing any of this up to brag. I'm bringing it up because at no point through the last three years did I feel like I was doing anything exceptionally quickly or making much progress...
It felt like I was just laying bricks. Most bricks look the same, and the action feels really repetitive. But after a long time of laying bricks, you look up to see a whole wall!
Most of the time, progress feels imperceptible. It's like looking in the mirror and suddenly realizing you need a haircut, even though you didn't actually notice growth happening in real time.
I remember listening to an interview with Ryan Holiday. He talked about writing books, each of which have hundreds of pages. When you're working on something that large, even days where you write 1,000 good words feel like a drop in the bucket. Extremely productive, difficult days feel like imperceptible progress in relation to the whole.
It's only in looking back and reflecting that we can recognize just how much we've created or accomplished.
So take a minute this weekend to reflect on your OWN journey over the last three years. Think about what YOU'VE accomplished and appreciate the overall accomplishments you've made.
And then get back to laying bricks.