How Thinking Small Might Lead to Your Next Big Breakthrough

Happy 2024!

If you’re anything like me, you welcome the new year with open arms. For many, it’s a time to reflect on what worked and what didn’t and to devote at least a day or two to deciding what’s worth taking into the new year.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this blog and what I want my writing life to look like in 2024. While I wrote everyday last year (I have the journal to prove it!), I knew that heading into this year I wanted to be more intentional about what gets shared in this space. To that end, you’ll be seeing some changes. For one, each month will encompass a theme aimed to help you—and me— be more intentional with the work we do. I promise the content will be short, yet helpful.

January’s theme: Goal Setting and Motivation

This week: Think Small

The 1960s ushered in the Creative Revolution in the world of advertising. Bill Bernbach spurned traditional advertising theory and urged marketers to think differently. He said,

“Let us blaze new trails. Let us prove to the world that good taste, good art, and good writing can be good selling.”

— Bill Bernbach

And he didn’t waste any time. His ad campaign for the Volkswagen Beetle turned advertising on its head by eschewing the flashy pictures and wordy content that had been popular for selling muscle cars for decades. Two words: THINK SMALL accompanied a tiny picture of the Volkswagen surrounded by a whole lot of white space.

This ad campaign, while innovative for the time, might not turn heads today. After all, you and I have grown up in the era of Apple Computers. Minimalism is firmly entrenched, and dare I say—here to stay.

But those words—THINK SMALL—they should cause us to pause. In a world that’s constantly telling us to think bigger, I appreciate someone giving me permission to think small. When thinking big seems overwhelming, take a moment to reflect on the small things that give you life. While you may not be able to spend 2024 going back to school or starting a new business, you might be able to volunteer in a school helping kids to read or maybe you can sign up for a class or workshop to learn a skill you’ve always wanted to try. You never know what big things might be birthed from the little choices you make today.

The Upside of Thinking Small

One of the best things about the Volkswagen campaign was that it was honest. The car was small, slow, and ugly. BUT…it could fit in tight parking spaces, the insurance payments were low, and repair costs were cheap too. Thinking small allows us to be honest about our own imperfections. To be sure, your imperfections are your superpowers!

That last statement may sound trite, but you know how I know it’s true? Because I know people who are facing insurmountable obstacles, who can barely dare to imagine what this next year will look like because of what they already know they are facing down. And yet, by God’s grace, these friends are putting one foot in front of the other and getting through the days, minute by minute and hour by hour. They are thinking small, and by doing so, they are living LARGE.

But I digress.

Why Now

If you wait for the big revelation, just be mindful that it may never come. If you feel like life is busy and that you never have time, chunking down a big goal into smaller daily deposits can be the key to getting you where you want to be in 2024. I know I didn’t do everything I wanted to do last year, but everyday I found time to read one chapter of the Bible, write one page in my daily journal, and practice Spanish for ten minutes. While these small habits won’t win any prizes, they helped me realize that thinking small is about more than habits. Certainly, there’s no shortage of strategy advice about how to make resolutions stick. We don’t need another tip or trick to do that, thank you very much.

This year, when you think small, think about Volkswagen and about how their ad campaign revolutionized the world of advertising. They didn’t do what everybody else was doing, and they changed the world. You can, too.

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When Your Purpose is to Make Life Less Difficult for Someone Else

Today, January 5, 2021, marks the 78th anniversary of the death of George Washington Carver.

From his humble beginnings of a slave, he rose to become one of the preeminent scientists of his day, ultimately discovering more than 300 uses for the humble peanut, even producing a peanut-based replacement for rubber during World War II in addition to soap, face creams, axle grease, insecticides, glue, medicines, and charcoal. Hard to believe a peanut can do all that, but alas—here we are—talking about this incredible legacy nearly a century after these amazing discoveries.

Carver solved big problems in a world where even back then all the people were a little bit sick, a little bit angry, a little bit greedy, and of course a little bit selfish.

I think we can all agree that last year was hard.

It was politics, and race, and wildfires, and job loss.

Oh—and COVID.

But even if you didn’t get COVID yourself, you probably worried about getting COVID, knew someone who had COVID, or simply wished the world would go back to the days before anyone ever uttered the word COVID.

If you were old, you felt vulnerable.
If you were young, you felt cheated.
If you were middle aged—like me—you felt responsible.

Did you feel like the weight of the weary world rested upon your tired shoulders?

I know.
I felt like that, too.

Responsibility is a gift and a curse—depending on how you view it.

We’re responsible, but we’re also selfish. Selfishness explains so much of human behavior—from voting tendencies to population patterns. And it’s why we have opinions about everything—opinions we’re not afraid to share.

Who among us hasn’t fantasized at least once about being the one to solve all the world’s problems?

When it comes to making a real difference, I’m guilty of allowing negative self-talk talk me out of doing anything meaningful. “I’m just one person,” I tell myself. “I don’t have enough experience, education, money, influence, or contacts.”

Want me to continue? I’m really good at making excuses!

But George Washington Carver could have used all those excuses—and more. His early life was filled with adversity. Luckily, he had a little hand up from a foster family who believed in him, and then he used his prodigious brain to pay attention to what he saw and cultivate what he knew.

What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?—George Eliot

But what if the work I’m meant to do is simply to make life less difficult for those around me?

Can you imagine the amazing world we would inhabit if everyone focused less on themselves and more on the people around them?

Believe it or not, a lot of us actually did that last year.

Did you know Facebook users raised more than $80M to combat climate change? People around the world supported small businesses and social awakenings, and Americans saw record voter turnout for the 2020 Presidential election.

That’s how the world came together. Scaled down even farther, this year my church hosted numerous blood drives and gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to community partners through our Be Rich program.

What about you? What did YOU do? What did I do?

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these.—George Washington Carver

Wanting neither fame nor fortune, Carver patented just three of his ideas. Accomplishment was never his goal. Indeed, he was a man of service.

And maybe that should be our goal, too.

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”—Galatians 6:2

I hope you’re as excited about the new year as I am. Of course, I’m excited about every new year. But even if 2021 lets me down, I’m not going to let this year get me down. There’s too many people in the world that need lifting up!

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WINSday on Wednesday--Don't Ask "What If?" Do THIS Instead

Who wants to talk about New Year’s resolutions?

Anyone…

Anyone???

I know. It’s not even February, and we’re already sick and tired of talking about our goals.

Hey, I get it.

New year, new you. Whoop-de-doo!

It IS a new year. The new you is up to you.

In fact, one of my favorite questions to ask people—no matter what time of year it is—is
“What is your aspirational future?”

My twelve year-old daughter told me just last week that her resolution this year is to stay exactly the same.

“I’m sorry,” I told her. “You’re not allowed to do that.”

Now before you get your pants in a tizzy about me loving my daughter exactly the way she is, let me assure you, I do.
I think she is a wonderful human.
She’s thoughtful, creative, and hard-working.
And I’ve told her as much many times. She knows all this is true.

But she’s also FEARFUL. (And she knows this is true, as well.)

Remember when you were a kid and your teacher would ask a question in class? If you knew the answer, your hand would shoot up in the air. But if you didn’t know the answer or you were unsure or thought your friends were going to make fun of you, then you would look down at your desk or out the window—anywhere you wouldn’t accidentally make eye contact with the teacher.

Questions are scary, and when you operate from a place of fear, all of life feels like one big question:

WHAT IF?

What if it’s too hard?
What if I look stupid?
What if I get hurt?
What if I never figure out how to do it?
What if…what if…what if….

Questions are loaded with anxiety.

So let’s talk about statements instead, specifically what I like to call What I.F. statements.

What I Fear is…

You exercise control over the fear when you frame the fear through the lens of a statement.

Fred Rogers said, “If it’s mentionable, it’s manageable.”

Although the emotion of fear is real, the cause may not even be true. That’s why fear doesn’t have to rule your life.

If you can categorize your fear, you can conquer it.

Last year, I interviewed my friend, Jordan Foxworthy. She told me about how when she was a little girl she also lived from a place of fear. She was afraid of so many things! And then one day she just decided to say yes—yes to an overseas missions trip with her dad. Getting on the plane and traveling to a faraway country with customs and language different from her own, she said “YES” and the experience changed the trajectory of her entire life! (You can watch our full interview here.)

Change is scary. Sometimes, I think we actually become more fearful as we get older. Maybe it’s because we can imagine all the ways in which something can go wrong. We know too much. Knowledge isn’t always power.

Sometimes, knowledge is paralyzing.

Jordan, who is now in her late 20s, says she often has to remind herself how far she’s come. Saying “yes” opened her up to the possibility of new experiences.

“My life is more interesting, eclectic, and diverse than my high school aged brain ever imagined it would be.”

Nobody wants to be scaredy-cat., so my daughter and I decided to make a list of a bunch of new things to try this year. She’s learning how to ride a skateboard. This is a big step. After crashing into a mailbox on a bike, I didn’t know if she’d ever trust herself on a set of wheels again. But a bike is not a skateboard. And crashing into a mailbox one time doesn’t mean we’ll crash into a mailbox the next time. Next time, she’ll remember to use her brakes. Problem solved!

We don’t get braver by doing nothing.

What are you scared of?

• Talking to that client?

• Making that career move?

• Ending that relationship?

• Starting a new exercise routine?

• Going back to school?

Name the fear. Surrender to what’s in front of you, and the next step will reveal itself. Resistance is what keeps you where you are.

If your goal this year is to stay exactly the same, then by all means, do nothing. Keep asking those “what if” questions. But if you want the interesting, eclectic, diverse life you’ve always dreamed of, then it’s time to open yourself up to the possibility of saying YES without fear.

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