The Next Thing

“Sometimes life is so hard you can only do the next thing.  Whatever that is, just do the next thing.”

–  Elisabeth Elliot (1926 – 2015), Christian author, speaker and missionary to Ecuador, as cited in Roy H Williams‘ Monday Morning Memo

Not only when life is hard, either.

Granted, the lesson is particularly valuable in challenging times.  Heck, make that difficult times, not just challenging.  Hard times, even!  Those times are often defined by the sheer scale and scope of the climb — when there is so much to do, we wonder if we can ever get it done, or if the task is so difficult we can’t imagine getting across the finish line.  That’s why Elliot reminds us to simply get out of the starting blocks.

DIfference makers realize that what’s happened has happened and what might play out, in the long run, will have to wait on the long run.  In the meantime, difference makers realize that what matters most is what we do next.

In good times, it’s easy to get too instinctive.  “Asleep at the wheel” is probably not a fair term, but when we’re hitting on all cylinders, it’s easy to feel ourselves in the back stretch, losing sight of the corner we have to navigate to get there.  The corner is the next thing.

Whether life is hard or easy, let’s commit to doing the next thing.

#differencemakers #next #b2bsales #dailydifference #leadership #coaching