Starting Small

They say the journey of a thousand miles begin with a step, but truthfully that is hard to imagine this days as most journey begin with the start of an automobile engine. We all want that grand beginning, that strong start that makes every endeavor look very promising. Hence we put so much into planning, into making sure that our first attempt will be awesome and very impressive. Who wouldn't kill for that?

However, when reality sets in, it turns outs that most first attempts, despite hours of planning and hard work, still turn out to be a flop, a huge fiasco. And anytime we want to commence anything, the question that keeps knocking on the door of our minds is, what if it doesn't work.

This best describes most endeavors I've undertaken lately. My first attempt has never been anything close to impressive. Not like I don't give them my best but still the returns haven't been awesome as I'd want them to be. While on campus, I started this poetry open mic, estimating that I'd have a minimum attendance of 60 persons on our first event and tirelessly worked towards achieving it, but in the end the attendance was far from what I estimated. Lately I made a spoken word video and posted it online, hoping to get an incredible number of views, but for a week now, all it has are just two views, mine and that of the video editor.

Still, I know better than to quit. I know that the word FAIL, only means First Attempt In Life, and most importantly, every loss, failure or disappointment is just an opportunity to learn. Now I know a thing or two about organizing an open mic, at least I know what doesn't work and why. Now I see that it is best to have a one minute video on IG, probably before putting out a four minute video on YouTube.

Recently, a friend told me of a mantra that says, think big, start small and move smart, and I strongly subscribe to such line of thought. Though we may have big dreams and ideas, we need to begin small. Beginning small gives us an avenue for learning and improving on ourselves.

So, though it looks prestigious when we start strong, what matters most is all it all ends. at the end of the day, the winner of a marathon, isn't the one who starts strong, but the own who finishes strong.