How Do You Eat an Elephant? One Bite at a Time!

With time and experience, I have learned that if you allowed yourself to be overwhelmed by the magnitude or complexity of a vision, you would never undertake it. As long as a personal vision remains in the mind like a shapeless mass, without being divided into its component parts, it seems impossible to undertake. You have to tackle it one piece at a time, one day at a time. You have to put it down on paper and gradually tame it action by action, component by component, until it becomes something feasible, familiar, and reduced to the scale of human initiative.

A vision has to become a project. A project has to be translated into a design. A design has to be divided into the many sections that make it up. Those sections, in turn, have to be carried out one by one in the realm of time and space. Those efforts, taken together and kept in harmony through faithfulness to the original vision, will ultimately become an admirable victory—one more achievement that, once completed, will have enriched our lives, strengthened our inner being, and illuminated the world around us.

Someone asked, “How do you eat an elephant?” To which a very wise person replied, “One bite at a time!” Never allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of a task. Do not let yourself be discouraged by how long it may take or by how meager your current resources are. Break it down into its constituent parts. Devise an action plan for each of those components. Remain yoked to the vision day after day, and keep bringing the dream into the dimensions of time and space, like a disciplined little ant building its mound, until you see it rise as a monument to your discipline and persistence. You will be amazed at how the world and circumstances gradually begin to align with your vision, respectfully stepping aside to make way for you and even to support you.