Welcome to the Daily Quote, the podcast designed to kickstart your day in a positive way. 1000 episodes and counting. I'm your host, Andrew McGivern, and this episode is brought to you by the Great News podcast. Because great news should be heard, and the link is right here in the show notes.
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Today’s quote comes from Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese philosopher who is said to have lived around 600 BCE. The quote is an English translation of a passage in the Tao Te Ching.
Lao Tzu once said…
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
This is one of my favourite quotes. Big journeys are intimidating when viewed all at once. A 1000 miles sounds impossible but a single step is easy. The difference is perspective.
A single step, repeated over and over again will take you 1000 miles eventually. Every major project can be broken down into single steps. But often we don’t do that. We look at the whole thing and decide we have to wait until we are ready. Until we have more knowledge, more confidence or more time. But sometimes the first few steps is what creates all those things.
Your first step doesn’t have to be impressive. It just has to be in the direction you want to go. And progress will seem almost invisible at first. But those steps will add up and before you realize it you will be at 1000.
And your destination could change somewhere along the way. You don’t have to know what the 387th step will look like when you take step 1. You might pivot, you might course correct. The important thing is to take the first step… and then do it again and again.
The episode you are listening to right now is the 1000th episode of the Daily Quote.
And if I had looked at this podcast as a 1000 episode project I may have been intimidated and maybe I wouldn’t have started it. But I didn’t create 1000’s episodes. I created one episode, 1000 times.
I didn’t set out to make 1000 episodes. I just focused on the next episode for 1000 days. Just one episode per day.
So here’s the question:
What is something you’ve been thinking about starting but it is too big a project and you are intimidated by it? Don’t think about the 1000 miles… just figure out what is the first step. And then take the first step.
That’s going to do it for today. I’m Andrew McGivern signing off for now, but I’ll be back… tomorrow! Because even after 1000 episodes, the journey continues one step (or episode) at a time. See you tomorrow, Same pod time, same pod station with another Daily Quote.
