Creating

The Power of Starting Small

Small beginnings create big things

Every living thing starts small and grows over time. Have you noticed this pattern applies to more than life? Let’s look at how you can use this concept to create what you want. It is easier to do than you may realize.

The pattern of creation

To live is to create. You create CO2 with every breath. Your body creates what it needs to survive from food and water. Your work creates something for which you earn an income. Besides income, work can create satisfaction, dissatisfaction, happiness, anxiety, and many other emotions and feelings.

You are responsible, at least in part, for creating every relationship you have. You can create love, hate, despair, joy, and many intangible things daily. Why? Because you are a creator!

Each of us is born to create in countless ways. Have you noticed the one thing every created thing has in common? It starts small and grows over time.

For example, did you know that a gamete (sperm) is the smallest cell in the human body? At the other end of the spectrum, the ovum (egg) is the largest cell in the body yet is still very small. These two tiny cells start the creation of every human being.

We see this pattern repeated in all living things. Every animal, insect, and other form of life requires fertilization and an environment conducive to life. Every living thing increases in size and changes in shape over time. While all living things have growth and change in common, only change is a constant. This includes our brain, which undergoes neurogenesis from when we are formed in the womb until we die and return to dust.

While growth will eventually cease, change continues until we cease to exist. Once life ends, what happens? Depending on your beliefs, you may cease to exist or go to heaven or hell.

Creating throughout life

Leaving aside the physical and focusing on the mental, few limits exist on the growth of our minds. We start with the tiny seed of a few words as infants, growing to about a 50-word vocabulary by age one. By age three, we hit an estimated 1,000 words, which increases to about 10,000 by age five.

By the time the average person enters college, they will know more than 20,000 words, ultimately peaking at just over 30,000 around 40 years old. Our vocabulary can continue to grow past 40 but at a slower rate.

Science Direct claims the average person’s vocabulary peaks at 67 years old while understanding and learning new information peaks at around 50. Of course, those are averages, and there are always exceptions. Considering how few people are lifelong learners, such ages are no surprise.

Then there is wisdom. We have a limited or small amount when we are young. Wisdom increases with age, created from learning and experience, each of which can continue to the end of life.

Starting small

We are creative beings in part because of the continual growth of our minds. Anything and everything created by humanity follows the pattern of starting from something small. It could be something as simple as an idea, growing and morphing into the physical.

“All great things have small beginnings.” Peter Senge (1947-present)

Think about the finest cathedrals in the world. They originated in someone’s mind, starting with laying one stone or brick on the foundation. Barely noticeable at the beginning, stone by stone or brick by brick, the building rises into the air. Over time, it grows into a magnificent structure towering into the sky.

Before the United States became a country, someone had an idea. A small number of individuals believed the idea. Over time, they gained support, overcoming every obstacle in their path. Ultimately, they built what was to become the greatest country ever to exist.

Look what the original two people started thousands of years ago. They procreated and have now filled the planet with more than 8 billion people!

“Such a big miracle in such a tiny baby. Big things often have small beginnings. A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on.” Carl Sandburg (1878–1969)

Everything we humans think in our minds and touch can grow. We grow simple things like our savings by putting away a few dollars at a time. We grow ourselves by going to school and continuing to learn through life. Many people grow from one small achievement to the next, repeating the pattern until they create a great deal.

Could humanity have put men on the moon without small beginnings? Could anything be accomplished in life without small beginnings? No. The importance of small beginnings has existed since the beginning of history.

“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.” Zechariah 4:10 NLT

Applying the concept of small beginnings

Why not apply the concept of small beginnings to anything you want to create? If you want to create a great career, start with what you have, however small it may be, and build on it. You can do the same thing with your marriage, a sport, a hobby, a friendship, and anything else. All you have to do is appreciate and build on the little things you have already accomplished.

“Have confidence that if you have done a little thing well, you can do a bigger thing well, too.” Joseph Storey (1723–1775)

A personal example is when I wrote my book. For 20 years, I wanted to write, starting and stopping, failing repeatedly. Coming face to face with a near-death experience, I finally woke up!

Part of my problem getting started was not having a clear vision of what I wanted to create. I believed until I had that clarity, I would do nothing but waste time. Little did I realize that idea itself was a waste of time!

I finally decided to create a book to help people chart a better course for their life journey. Being somewhat of a perfectionist, I was overthinking it. From my years of business experience, I knew I would begin to make headway if I only started. At first, I attempted to build on the many notes I had made over the years. I soon found them a distraction.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” Mark Twain (1835–1910)

It finally hit me: I must do one thing and one thing only — write! Sitting down daily and putting words on the page, The decades of experience, knowledge, emotions, feelings, beliefs, and everything else made me who I was.

I had done enough planning and finally quit worrying about finishing the next chapter. I only needed to focus on the day’s writing. Little by little, word by word, I created a book!

The book was finished and edited within months and has done well. Is it perfect? No, I never intended for it to be. Besides, it never could be. The old me would have always gone back to refine it or add more, but I have overcome that temptation. The sales numbers speak for themselves. I have had many great reviews and feedback. I had accomplished my primary mission of writing something to help people.

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” Laozi (born 571 BC)

A funny thing happened after publishing the book. I had the urge to start writing articles based on parts of it.

After learning that a perfect plan was not necessary to create, I started writing each day. Since that decision, I have published well over a thousand articles! All I did was start small, and here I sit, writing an article most days with no end in sight. My only hope now is I can continue to help people live a better life, so all I write has that end in mind.

I would never have dreamed that writing a 50,000-word book would lead me to write and publish articles containing more than a million words to date! At 50,000 words on average for a book, that is a lot of books!

“It all adds up; never discount your efforts, because small efforts build big things.

One word doesn’t make a novel, but one word does begin a novel, and from that small beginning everything else follows.

Even if it’s just ‘The’, write something on that blank page.” Laurell K. Hamilton (1963-present)

What is that one thing or idea you want to build on? Give it some serious thought. Get started by doing one small thing, then another, and repeat! It’s that simple to begin creating what you want.

Final thoughts

Why not apply the principle of building on small beginnings in your life? When you do so, you can build something magnificent, brick upon brick. May your creation be like one of those beautiful cathedrals towering high into the sky. Something absolutely magnificent!

I leave you with a short rhyme I came up with back in the 80s:

Mile by mile can be a trial,

Yard by yard can still be hard,

But inch by inch, anything’s a cinch!

BillAbbate| LinkedIn |Twitter| Medium| Facebook| AmazonAuthorPage | NewsBreak | Truth

Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION

Thank you for reading this article! If you enjoyed it, please check out the others below! Medium has boosted each!