… “and it came to us.“
You have been asked by your boss to lead a team to tackle a huge project. Or you are moving. And you need to clean out the garage. Or a basement full of stuff that has accumulated over decades.
The question with each of these is, “Where do I start! How do I get started!!” The problem is you are looking at this in its entirety. “This is just too much!” Take a first step. Throw out that box of old clothes you will never wear again. Take a second step. All those toys you bought for the kids, “Why in the world did I keep these!” Now you are on a roll! Believe me. That first step is a launchpad to completing the job. Eventually, you will have finished what you started. That huge, daunting task? You beat it to a pulp.
Here is an interesting parallel. You may know that football in the South is crazy! Just nuts!! All you have to do is go to one SEC game and you will see what I mean. This post is dedicated to all my “sicko” friends down here who live and die for University of Georgia football.
On January 10, 2022, the Georgia Bulldogs defeated the Alabama Crimson Tide for their first National Championship in 41 years. On January 15th, Kirby Smarty, the head coach, gave a rousing speech in front of 80,000 wild fans celebrating the victory. All the “sickos” were there.
Kirby opened his talk with this. “This is wonderful. Let me first give you an observation. In prior years we always told ourselves, The National Championship is out there! We just have to visualize it every day. Reach out for it. Previously, we had always envisioned ourselves lifting the trophy. We talked about it a lot. Even got cocky about the fact that we would be the next National champions. Forgetting to focus on what we needed to do… to get our hands on the trophy. That seemed to be all that mattered. We had the best players. Great coaches. And we had an insane fan base. We could not miss!”
But like the project, the garage and the basement, the journey to the Championship felt enormous, intimidating.
Kirby continued … “This year we took a different approach. We knew the National Championship was out there. We had a meeting to discuss it early during preseason practice. This was our goal. Our dream. At the same time, we all agreed discussing the Championship would cease after our meeting. During the season, The National Championship would not be mentioned again.”
“Instead, it was time to work toward our goal this way. Once, only once, imagine the team standing on the podium. Take in as well the enormity of the challenge. Then go to work. Put your heads down and do whatever is necessary that day. Blocking, tackling, running the right routes, communication on the field. Every day with your heads down. Not reaching out to grab the prize. Just doing all we need to do each day, to reach our goal. Sound familiar?
The result was magical. Rather than chase, reach out for the Trophy with glazed eyes, we just did the work. Every day. With a ‘21 record of 14 – 1. By beating Alabama in the last game. No chasing, no reaching. By simply lifting our heads after doing the work all season along?…there it was. The Trophy.”
“And it came to us.”
There is a great lesson here. When we feel we have something important that we feel is just too vast to do, we need to stop looking at this in its entirety. Put aside your feelings and fears … “How can I possibly do this?” The old adage is “How do you eat an elephant? … one bite at a time.” Comes to mind.
How about those IKEA products. If you have ever bought one. You know it takes an IQ of 140 to put it together. Shelves, beds, toys. On and on. You unpack these things and after a deep sigh. With a pit in your stomach, you start reading the directions. Do not worry about what your product is going to look like when finished. Read instruction #1. Complete #1 before you move on to #2. The same for #3 and #4 and #5,6 and 7 …on and on. Stick with it. The final product begins to appear. You have done the work, one step at a time. And there it is.
“and it came to you.”
The lesson here is clear. Never shy away from a job or task that seems insurmountable. Say to yourself, “I can do this!”Again, the first step is crucial. The second step may be even more so. You build momentum. Confidence. Do the work. Keep your head down. Surprise yourself.
“and it will come to you.”
Consider this:
Have you ever faced something important that was so daunting, you avoided it like a five day old fish in a newspaper?
What did you do/or not do to overcome your avoidance?
If you didn’t take it on, what were the consequences of not doing so?
Do you think the concept of taking steps “and it will come to you” makes sense?