Wednesday, February 06, 2008

One Bite at a Time


Do you ever get overwhelmed by projects that seem too big? I know I do.

I once heard someone ask, "How do you eat an elephant?" He then responded, "One bite at a time!" Obviously that is a great metaphor for life, especially when it seems overwhelming.

I recently received this tidbit in an email from Zig Ziglar on this subject:

There's an old saying that "by the mile it's a trial, and by the inch it's a cinch." The reason the saying is old is because it's good, it's valid. If it were not, it would be dead and buried. For 24 years of my adult life, by choice I weighed well over 200 pounds. I say "by choice" because I have never "accidentally" eaten anything, so when I choose to eat too much, I have chosen to weigh too much. Every choice has an end result.

Twenty-two years ago I decided to do something about my weight and physical condition, so I got on an exercise and sensible eating program. Until then my idea of exercise was to fill the tub, take a bath, pull the plug and fight the current - and I know you'll agree that's not much of an exercise program! It took me 10 months to lose the 37 pounds I needed to lose. During that period of time I also wrote my first book, See You At The Top. It is 384 pages long and was the eighth best-selling hardback of the '80s.

Let's explore what I just said. Losing 37 pounds in 10 months meant that I lost an average of 1.9 ounces per day. Writing a 384-page book in 10 months meant that I wrote an average of 1 1/4 pages per day. You raise positive kids in a negative world, build a beautiful relationship with your mate, become a top-performing student, a world-class salesperson, or a top executive or educator not by a few mammoth leaps but by the daily, disciplined application of doing something every day to reach your objectives in life.

3 comments:

Rick said...

I wonder if they're serving elephant at Bedford Christian Community Church's wild game dinner this weekend. I guess I will find out. If they do, I am only having one bite though, I don't think I can down a whole one in one sitting. :-D

Good point on the post. Great reminder for me not to let some things be too daunting and just take them one step at a time.

Jim Lange said...

Try the elephant ears - those are the best--at least they are at the fair!

Rick said...

Crunchy goodness.