Great Doesn’t Have To Be Big

Something that we’ve been indoctrinated to believe is that things need to be big to matter. In one way this comes from capitalism and the pursuit of more wealth or revenue. But this has spread into all corners of life creating this constant pressure to do more because we can.

It all leads to a critical misunderstanding that is causing a lot of people to discredit themselves: Great doesn’t have to be big and big isn’t always great.

You don’t need a big house to have a warm home. You don’t need to reach millions of people to change a life. You don’t need to run a marathon to reach a meaningful fitness goal. The size and extent of something does not determine its greatness, rather the intention and quality behind it does.

When people take this thought out of context they compromise their greatness. That’s because they extend themselves too thin and have less quality left within their influence. Many people don’t realize the consequences of pursuing more - it means that you have to split up what you have to offer in more ways such that any one place gets less of it.

Greg McKeown talks about this in “Essentialism”. Imagine two circles next to each other. One has one long arrow pointed out of it, and the other has 6 smaller arrows pointing out of it. Which one do you think makes the bigger impact? The one with only one arrow, because it represents the benefits of having completely aligned, undiluted, undistributed effort.

This is exactly why great doesn’t have to be big and big doesn’t have to be great. But it takes some unlearning to feel okay with it because we’ve inherited a “the bigger the better mindset”.

In fact, I’m a huge believer in the compound effect and how small things make a huge impact when done consistently. It’s the way the world works, and the sooner you can align yourself and your efforts around it, the better.

The greatest example I know of this is the power in the Best Self Breakthrough Challenge. When you do the right, small things, in just 5 minutes a day for 21 days, you can generate unbelievable progress with little effort and time. And that’s exactly what this 21 day challenge helps you to do - You can get more consistent, conquer self-sabotage, and multiply your productivity by becoming more focused and limiting distractions (so that you stop leaving so much of your potential on the table). Click here to learn more about the challenge, our next live group starts on May 8th!