You know the old sales and marketing riddle, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer is of course, “One bite at a time.” This is true for any huge task. If you break the job down into bite-sized chunks, you can achieve anything and no, I’m not planning on actually eating a pachyderm anytime soon. When I got divorced I packed one box at a time, found a nursery school for my son, signed the lease on a new apartment, booked the movers, and off I went. When I ran the marathon it was methodical training for ten months, but the actual day-to-day was simply one foot in front of the other. I built my database contact by contact– ok it was really lunch by lunch if I’m being honest! And I wrote my novel one chapter at time– but I finished it. (Note to self: Publish already.)
When my friend Robyn started her DE&I business, she was not a fan of cold calling or leveraging her contacts to ask for business. I reminded her that the one extra call she makes per day could end up brining in the biggest deal she’s had to date! And look at her now– an Executive Managing Director, serving multimillion dollar accounts with financially driven human capital solutions– and she got there call by call, deal by deal, all with business that she personally brought in. (Go Rob!)
I also love the saying, “Your keys are always in the last place that you look.” Obviously! Because when you find them you stop looking. Blogging is nothing like looking for lost keys. There is really no endgame. In fact, this is post number 99 for me… one away from the triple digit benchmark of one hundred. I had no idea my love of writing would turn into such a greedy passion. The minute my teeth are brushed each morning, I grab the laptop, anxious to get my daily fix of ideas onto the page. I’ve become a true word junkie and I’m happy to report that even my bad spelling has improved! But even as I approach this milestone, I have at least a hundred more things I’d like to write about. Hours on the clock just seem to fly when I’m at the computer and my free time passes with me clattering away at the keys.
I have no idea how far authorship of these stories will take me. Maybe one day they will all be folded into a new book. Maybe a magazine or newspaper will read one or two posts and track me down to demand I quit my day job and immediately write for their publication in a snappy weekly column or monthly segment. (Oooooo!) But if not, I’m wildly content doing just this– imparting my feelings and stories, recipes and inside jokes, one by one to share with you. One might even say that I’m taking bites of the elephant– and in this case I’m fairly certain that I will never get my fill.
jenslittleblackbook.com 