make-a-start

Chatting with a friend one day I was bemoaning the fact that I had so much to do and that I didn't see how I was going to cope.

"Stop staring up the steps!!" he said "Start stepping up the stairs."

He went on to explain. "Imagine yourself standing at the foot of a long flight of stairs, the top of which is so high and so distant that its barely visible to you. You stand at the bottom with your hand on the rail, staring up and feeling discouraged by the sight of the climb, telling yourself that you'll never make it. But if you look down and notice what's just in front of your foot you'll see one easy step. You step up and look back and already you're off the ground. You take a few more steps and look back and the sight of what you've achieved so far encourages you to continue. Soon you're at the top of the stairs and you arrived there one small step at a time. You can now look back to where you started and feel proud of your achievement."

There are times in all our lives when we can become discouraged by the enormity of a task ahead of us and at these times we should remember this story.