BABY STEPS

            It’s too overwhelming. Yes, life is amazing but we all agree that sometimes it gets too overwhelming. It happens a lot when you have a big dream, an ambition that won’t let you sleep and that’s where the problem kicks in. It’s too big, too farfetched, too overwhelming to come true. The road to its accomplishment is infinitely long and you are already considering plan B, giving up.  The bad news is giving up is not an option and the good news is you are not alone. I don’t know about others, but I assure it happens to me.. a lot.

            When I get this feeling, I think of the first real accomplishment I can remember – crossing the road. Like every child then, I could not cross the road without an adult holding me. By the sheer urge of an immature experiment to impress I tried crossing the road – alone. Well, the experiment had a foreseen outcome; I was run down by a car. I am grateful; I came out unscathed, only a few scratches of course and wailing that lasted for the rest of the day. The scratches made me even more eager to learn. Teachers told us to look left then right continuously until there was no vehicle, then we could cross. I tried this algorithm but it didn’t exactly work. It was an infinite loop of looking left and right, since there were vehicles constantly, it was a road after all. So I added the element of timing, approximating the time a car would take to reach and intuitively I knew when the time was right. The first time I reached the other end of the road without an adult was a cornerstone to my life. I have practically built my confidence on that ever since.

            Any journey no matter how long starts with a single step. No one knows this better than Howard Aiken. Even with a PhD in Physics, it took him more than 5 good years to come with the Harvard Mark IV (One of the first usable computers). He started with the Mark I progressing all the way to the Mark IV.  I’m sure 5 years don’t just pass by overnight. We all relate to the tedious task of getting upstairs. The staircase seems quite long in the beginning but after taking one step after another, we reach up before we know it.

            One of Confucious famous quotes is “When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don't adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” I don’t think I can add anything onto that. Start with small tasks, accomplish them, and move on, repeat this loop until you are there. Life is overwhelming, even with that element, it still is amazing.