Bite Sized Pieces

First of all, I apologize, I am a day late in writing and posting this blog, but it turns out to actually be a good thing.  I had a topic all ready to go, but then I read a comment from an earlier blog and I changed my mind.  I think that this is actually a topic that I should be writing a blog about. It is a discussion I have probably 20-30 times a year with clients, and probably another 10-20 times a year with friends and family.  So clearly there is a need for the discussion. So here we go…

Oftentimes we are faced with situations that seem immense to us.  They are in a word, overwhelming.  When in that situation it can lead one to feel or become almost paralyzed to take action because the task at hand is so mind-boggling large that one doesn’t even know where to begin, or in some cases how to even wrap their minds around what needs to be done, or even the extent of what the issue is.

So, how do we move forward?  We unwind the problem/issue/solution all the back to the beginning. then we build a logical step by step (attainable steps) plan on how to reach the ultimate goal.  By focusing only on the step you are working on, the situation becomes smaller and more manageable, because you are tackling it in a logical way and in what I call bite sized pieces. You are not stuffing the entire pizza in your mouth at one time…that would be irrational and reckless. So why would you approach any situation/issue/problem/solution in such a irrational and reckless manner?  The answer is, you wouldn’t. Example: If you are switching to a new software system, first you would research what system is best for your business, then purchase and customize if necessary, then you would have the relevant staff trained on the new software, then you would establish a target date for the changeover from the old software to the new software, etc…. You wouldn’t just randomly buy the software one day and change over your systems the same day, the result would be chaos.

That is just one small example but you can extrapolate it out to just about any situation and you will find that any significant change is made up of a series of small bite sized steps, that when put together result in the desired change or solution.  The bite size pieces approach keeps the steps manageable and relatable and not so pie in the sky. So just remember nothing has to happen overnight and always have a solid plan of attack.