Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved playing with LEGO sets. Most of the LEGO sets I’ve had have been pretty simple, but a few of them have been more complex. This caused me no despair, however, as I followed the instructions and completed the project one brick at a time, each brick representing one small victory on the road to a larger victory. I realized at some point that winning small victories that add up over time into large victories is how I’ve gone about nearly everything in my life.
When I’m trying to change a habit, I find it helpful to gradually rid myself of it using small victories rather than trying to cut it out immediately. For example, I’ve mentioned before how I stopped taking my phone into the bathroom while I shower, but I didn’t talk about how I did it. At first, I extended the amount of time between getting out of the shower and checking my phone. Once that became easy, I started leaving it in another room and checked it shortly after getting dressed. Over time, I got to the point that I could wait as long as I wanted before checking my phone without feeling like I was missing out. Knowing myself, I believe this was a much better system than trying to quit cold turkey.
Another example is the way I wrote papers in school. When I didn’t procrastinate and write them all the night before they were due (which I did more often than I should have), I would space them out and work on them a bit each day. Typically I would have a paper planned out either in my head or in outline form, write the opening and closing paragraphs first, and then write one or two paragraphs a day for the body until I finished it. That saved me the stress of trying to get it all done in one go and gave me plenty of time to check and polish my work as I went along.
For my last example, I’m going to talk about planning group events, which is something I’ve done several times this year. The first one I planned was a total flop; nobody went to it, not even me. But it familiarized me with planning events and getting people interested in them, both of which are vital for having successful group events. My first successful event consisted of inviting friends to the local park for World Juggling Day 2018. A good number of people showed up and everyone either had fun juggling or enjoyed watching others juggle. I’ve since done one juggling event each month and, with the exception of one that got rained out, they’ve all been successful. After that, I planned a day at the beach in a state park. That event involved everyone paying an entrance fee, driving a lot, and overall a lot of opportunities for problems, but it went quite smoothly. In September, I organized a watch party for the movie Airplane! with a smaller group of friends. I had to buy the movie, get permission from some friends to host the party at their house, reschedule the event due to an unforeseen incident, and do my best to invite people who I thought would enjoy the movie instead of finding it off-putting; this one was also a success. And lastly, I just did an escape room this weekend with eight other friends. For this event, I had to pick the location, decide on a room, book it and pay for it up front, avoid inviting too many people (the place we went has limits how many people can be in one room at a time), and figure out a way for everybody to arrive on time so we didn’t miss our slot. This was the most complicated event I’ve planned so far and it went off without a hitch. I think my experience planning small, simple events and steadily progressing to larger, more complex events was invaluable in making this one work so well.
Small victories give me a sense of accomplishment, strengthen my discipline, and make it easier to win increasingly larger victories. Additionally, breaking big tasks down into smaller, more manageable ones helps me avoid getting overwhelmed and gives me progress that I can track, which acts as motivation to continue. Thinking about my experience with this has proven to me the truth of what the Bible says in Luke about being “faithful in a very little”. I now have confidence that I can accomplish what I want in life as long as I know what I’m getting into, have a plan, and spend enough time winning the small victories that come with just about everything worth doing.