52 small steps are better than one giant leap
Two more weeks. Two more weeks to the big day and only three more until we're in a new year.
You can do it. One final push, a few more baby steps and you can chuck the alarm clock in a drawer, forget your inbox, and legitimately eat mince pies for breakfast. Well, maybe that last one is just me.
This week I saw a post from the LinkedIn powerhouse that is Charlie Whyman. It was a picture of two ladders, one with rungs spaced close together, another with rungs spaced far apart. Someone was climbing the ladder with the rungs close together and they were almost at the top. The ladder with the rungs spaced far apart featured someone stretching to grip the bottom rung which was just out of reach.
The headline ran:
The importance of smaller steps
Not only is it a fitting metaphor for life generally, it seems especially apt at the end of the year. It made me wonder: what small steps have you taken this year? We're 49 weeks down. How far have you come? And how far have you got left to go?
For many people this year, myself included, weeks felt like rungs spaced too far apart. Days, even hours, were a more fitting marker. More manageable, less mind-boggling. And though the progress of tiny steps feels frustratingly slow when the passage of time is reduced to such small increments, at the end of each hour, each day, each week I found that I felt better. I realised that I had accomplished more than I anticipated and that the quality was more satisfying.
And so we come (almost) to the end of one year, the beginning of the next. We've nearly done it! And if reaching this point in 2020 with a smile intact is not cause enough for celebration, then I hope that reflecting on your own steps so far this year might be - no matter how tiny they are.
Thank you for walking with me. I heartily hope that you have had a good year, despite the many trials and tribulations 2020 has delivered. With a bit of luck, I wish that your 2021 will be even better than you imagine.
I'll be back next week for one final hurrah before the festivities begin. Have a wonderful weekend and I will see you soon.
Don't forget, 2020 may almost be out, but...
...your words still matter,
Laura
The Weekly Writing Reflection
Welcome!
Each week I share an inspirational quote and a writing prompt. The idea is for you to spend a moment doing some active reflection through writing.
Here’s your quote for this week...
‘Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle.’
- Anna Quindlen
And your writing prompt, if you’d like to use one:
My tiny steps muddle me on and on to...
What’s Caught My Eye This Week
Here to send you off into the weekend with a few snippets of inspiration, thought-provocation and jubilation. Hand-curated delights, selected by yours truly to stimulate your mind and soothe your soul.
What’s your practice? Maybe you like to dance, do yoga, paint, perhaps you practice a martial art or meditation. Whatever it is, what makes you do it? In this reflective piece, Steven Pressfield shares his thoughts on why having a practice is being a professional, and (I think) why being a professional requires discipline.
‘Copywriting is about life’ – it sure is. This copywriter profile makes interesting reading for anyone with even a general interest in advertising. It also goes a little way in proving my theory that nobody who is a copywriter set out to become one. Can’t decide whether that makes us a ‘dirty little secret’ or ‘the best-kept secret’...! You tell me 😏
Any Sheffielders out there? As a student in Sheffield, the Park Hill estate was a dominant, yet forlorn, feature of the cityscape. It’s fantastic to see that new life has been given to the ‘streets in the sky’.
Thank you, as ever, for reading. If you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, why not share it with a friend?