So, I'm sure he was not the first one to say this...I mean the idea is as old as dirt and has presented itself in various flavored idioms, but when I heard him say it, it really rang true.
I'm talking about Will Smith and an interview he gave with Charlie Rose where he told him a story about building a wall. In short his father had twelve year old Will Smith and his nine year old brother build a wall, which to children and most adults seems like an impossible task.
At first all they could focus on was the final product, the massive wall that seemed like something they could never finish. But move the story along two years and sure enough they had a wall.
The message their father instilled in them was nothing is impossible, but more importantly the idea that you focus on each task and not the final product. "You don't build a wall," he said. "You lay one perfect brick and you do that over and over and you will have a wall."
It's easy to apply this principle in everyday life and especially in writing. Too many times as a writer we focus on the mountain ahead of us, the finished product. I've been guilty of staring that blank page in the face and wondering how I pull 80,000 words from it. But when you focus only on the sentence or even the word you're writing it changes your perspective.
One step at a time, brick by brick, word by word, it's all the same. The important thing is you keep moving forward and eventually you'll be wherever it is you're going.
As I sit here and work on my many WIPs I remind myself that and keep putting one word after the other on my path to success. Whatever your industry, whatever you goal, do the same thing and soon enough you'll be where you want to be.
