Sometimes, when I’m on a road trip with the family, Google Maps will say that we’ve got two choices: We can stay on the highway and get to our destination in, say, 20 minutes, but things will be super slow due to an accident ahead; or we can get off the highway, driving at 25 or 35 miles per hour on a local road, and also get there in 20 minutes. The ETA doesn’t change — but with the local road, at least we’re not at a standstill.
When given that choice, my wife always chooses the local road. She always wants to be moving.
I was thinking about that recently while talking with a client. They were a little bit frustrated about the pace of progress with their work. They have a few big projects in the queue, but they need help from some colleagues to get those projects to the finish line, and that means a few more weeks (or months!) of work. They lamented the fact that they weren’t moving faster.
And I reminded them: There’s still stuff in their control that they can tackle sooner rather than later. Yes, those tasks might be a bit smaller, but getting them done would represent forward progress.
A baby step is still a step in the right direction.
Everyone wants to move fast, but sometimes, that’s not an option. So if you have the chance to take a step forward, no matter how big, take it.
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That photo of a white, concrete staircase in Italy comes via Gabriella Clare Marino for Unsplash.