Just Lay One Brick (as perfectly as you can) At A Time

Building a house is a huge undertaking.

You must find the location, develop a site plan, get the site plan approved, design the house itself, get the plans approved by the building department, get the plans approved by the HOA, secure all the materials, hire a general contractor, hire subcontractors, secure a loan to pay for the construction of the house….

…. The list goes on.

And this is all before the first brick is laid!

All these to-do items make the entire process seem daunting, and maybe even completely overwhelming.

I think this is a great metaphor for what we all experience when we look at a big project or goal that we set out to accomplish.

Maybe it’s building a business, maybe it’s losing 50 pounds, maybe it’s becoming the best basketball player at your high school, or maybe it is building your own house.

These large goals can seem intimidating and even unachievable if we focus on the scale and magnitude of what we are really trying to accomplish.

But that’s where we get off track.

Having big goals and a crystal-clear vision is imperative in helping you create the energy and focus to tackle big things, but that’s not where goals are accomplished.

Big goals are accomplished in the trenches.

They are accomplished in the monotonous daily tasks that (most of the time) you REALLY don’t want to do.

For sales reps it’s picking up the phone.

For getting fit it’s showing up to the gym and consistently hitting your macronutrient & calorie targets.

For authors it’s sitting down in that chair every day to write (even if it’s complete and utter garbage that day).

The point is that building anything in life is all about the process.

It’s all about doing the little things right.

Day in.

And day out.

I remember hearing this interview years ago with Will Smith.

He and his brother spent an entire summer building this huge retaining wall when they were kids.

It was a huge task for a couple of young boys, but he said something very profound in that interview.

He said, “Building that whole wall was intimidating, but I just focused on laying one brick as straight and as perfectly as a brick could be laid. I knew if I just kept focusing on that, eventually the entire wall would be built.”

How true is that in your life too?

I know it’s true for me.

When was the last time you truly got lost in the process of building something great, without constantly looking up to see your “progress”!?

This is truly one of my favorite things to do.

It’s getting lost in the process of building something amazing.

You certainly must hold on to that magical vision that you created, but every day you must simply show up, and just lay that one brick as perfectly as you can that day.

Then, you show up the next day and you do it all over again.

This is really the ONLY way to accomplish something big.

One day at a time.

One blog at a time.

One workout at a time.

One sales call at a time.

One brick at a time.