People may spend their whole lives climbing the ladder of success only to find, once they reach the top, that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall. ~Thomas Merton
You may have heard this quote. It talks more about the success at the top than the ladder you will have to climb up. But I think sometimes the ladder itself is even more important.
Take a look at this picture below.
The Chinese words between the two ladders in the picture mean “Never underestimate the importance of one small step after another.”
Now imagine if you are to climb one of the two ladders, which one would you choose?
Probably the one on the left with many rungs of much smaller gaps.
Now imagine the two ladders are the actual paths to your ambitious goal, which path would you take?
Obviously you would take the one with many small steps along the way.
That’s the power of small steps.
Sometimes we get stuck with our goal simply because our next step is too big. It’s too wide a gap between two rungs on the ladder of our success. So to fix the problem and get unstuck we just need to put more rungs (small steps) on our ladder.
Perhaps your next step is to write a full chapter of your bestselling book. If that’s too big a step, try writing a single page.
Or if your next step is to find a new job, try just updating your resume.
Or if your next step is to launch your own product, try building a prototype first.
It takes the same person to reach the same goal. The only difference is that the person who succeeds simply takes many smaller steps along the way. They take full advantage of all those rungs of smaller gaps on the ladder to reach the top. So the key is to climb the right ladder.
Now, what does your ladder of success look like?
