Start Small

Pass on some useful advice or information you learned and always remembered.

I have asked for and taken probably a good bit more than my share of advice in my life.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I am not the most independent person.  I listen to advice, store it within my enormous memory, and now I can pass on to you some of the best and most mind-blowing advice I have ever received. 

Are you ready for it?

Here it goes:

Start small.

Yep.  That's it.  Start small.  This advice came from a professor of mine in college at Kentucky Christian University.  Dr. Fawn Knight taught a number of my classes including English Comp I, Arts and Humanities in Eastern Culture, Masterpieces of British Literature, Renaissance Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing.  This nugget of golden truth came from Dr. Knight during my Maymester Creative Writing course.  There were only five or six students in that class, and Dr. Knight's ever encouraging spirit was so motivating to our tired minds.  Dr. Knight taught me a lot in those three weeks, but "Start small" is the one I remember the most clearly.  She bought each of my classmates and me tiny picture frames and had those words printed in them on our last day of class to be a constant reminder.

Because it is a reminder that we all need and it is a statement by which to live.  I feel so overwhelmed sometimes... by cleaning my house top to bottom, or embarking on an enormous new novel that never seems to get any shorter, or writing for pleasure (because I always want my writing to be a masterpiece and, let's face it, it is not), or looking at all of the fit and beautiful people who live at the gym... Relax.  Breathe.  One step at a time.  When you are feeling overwhelmed, out of place, unhappy with your surroundings, dissatisfied with what you are doing, it does not all need to be fixed, completed, or beautiful right away.  Start small.  You've got this!