[Photo Credit: Alaskan Dude]

“The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Lately I’ve taken to hanging inspirational fliers all over the wall around my workspace to remind myself what I’m working for and why I must choose to do the things I do. When you are juggling multiple projects and have aspirations as high as mine, it can be difficult to keep track of everything. And it’s way too easy to get overwhelmed.

The flier that most inspires me these days hangs at eye level just above my monitor and contains the simplest truth for moving forward on projects that seem unrealistically big.

It says, “Just one more step.”

The Climbing of El Castillo

A tourist-chasing street vendor conned me out of a whole twenty pesos for a poorly made, mass-produced straw hat. I’m still ashamed of that one. The loose weaving let the mid-day sun creep through the brim and onto my already burnt cheeks and the black-and-rainbow ribbon that wrapped around its base wasn’t doing much for my style, but it was all I had. It was definitely better than nothing. I’m way too pale for a Mexican summer.

After ten hours on a bus, I would have been happy to be anywhere, but I wasn’t just anywhere. I was surrounded by the ruins of Chichen Itza. There was the Great Ball Court where the Mayans played a game that resembled a mix of soccer, volleyball and basketball. There was the observatory from which they could measure and observe at least 20 astronomical events. There was a palace dubbed “The Nunnery” because of it’s architectural resemblance to a convent.

But, most importantly, there was El Castillo.

El Castillo (which means “The Castle” in Spanish) is a step-pyramid and the centerpiece of the archaeological site at Chichen Itza. It was also one of the biggest reasons I’d ventured into Mexico. After years of reading about such a place in National Geographic or watching documentaries about it on the History channel, I wanted to actually experience it. I wanted to see it with my own eyes, to touch it, to smell the air around it and to climb it. Now I’d finally gotten my chance.

I stood at the bottom looking up. The sun soaked sky was nearly burning my retinas, but if I squinted enough I could just make out the shape of the temple chamber at the top. It was quite an intimidating thing for me to imagine climbing especially considering my fear of heights. The ninety-two steps on the north side were a lot steeper and narrower than any photograph can show and, if I remember correctly, they were formed out of a very slick limestone.

The tour guide went on and on about the site. How on the spring and autumn equinoxes the sun would be able to creep down the staircase and illuminate a snake’s head at the bottom, making it look as if the serpent was crawling out of the temple chamber. And how, if you clapped loudly enough, the pyramid would echo back a high-pitched chirping sound that resembled the call of a quetzal, a bird that represented the Mayan god Kukulkan for whom the pyramid was built.

By the time he’d released the group to go climb the pyramid, I had already talked myself out of it. I’d probably fall. I was afraid of heights. It was good enough to just be there. After a few minutes watching others scale the pyramid, I walked up to its base and thought, “I don’t need to go to the top, I just need to know I was on it so I can tell people at home.” So, I stepped up on the lowest step. It was too easy.

“I’ve come 1400 miles. I should at least get a decent view.” So I decided that all I needed to do was get to the middle of the staircase so I could look back and see a wider view of the site. Since I was so afraid of falling, I climbed step-by-step using my hands as well as my feet (which felt pretty natural, considering its steepness). One step after another after another. A second, then a third, then a fourth and on and on. I just stared straight down and counted each step I was on. I didn’t care exactly where I was on the staircase, I only cared that the step I was on now was one number higher than the step I was on before.

By the time I looked up to the top of the pyramid and looked back down, I realized I was at least three quarters up it. Why stop now? So I kept climbing, counting each and every step. All ninety-two. And then I stood at the top staring into the temple chamber. I turned around and it was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen! You could see for miles. You could see every single building at Chichen Itza from the top of El Castillo. And more than that, it was absolutely surreal. I was standing atop a thousand-year-old Mesoamerican pyramid.

(I ended up being especially glad I did it because a year or so after I was there an 80-year-old woman fell to her death. Tourists are no longer allowed to climb El Castillo.)

Focus On Where You’re At

With any goal you want to accomplish, you should have just a vague view of the bigger picture. That is to say, you should know you are working toward something bigger, but all of your focus should be on where you’re at now. Don’t worry about the end if you’re at the beginning. Worry about the beginning. Worry about making the beginning as good as it can possibly be then move on to the next step and focus on it for a while, making it as good as it can be.

It can be very overwhelming to stare up at your “pyramid” and think, “Wow, I have to climb that entire thing.” Don’t do that. You don’t climb pyramids in a single massive leap. All you have to do is take tiny steps and make sure you keep taking tiny steps.

Try to change the way you perceive your biggest, long-term projects. Stop seeing them as a mountainous temple to be scaled and start seeing them in three dimensions. You aren’t being assigned the duty of shooting straight to the top. You’ll move through space and time, slowly and surely. You’ll move slightly up, then slightly forward, then slightly up, then slightly forward taking care to make sure your footing is good on each step before you move on to the next.

Before you know it, you’ll have reached the top!

“Good” Gets You To The Top, “Perfect” Gets You There Slowly

I was fortunate enough to be in a group with some arrogant Mormon surfers from Utah. (I understand that Utah is completely landlocked, but they wore Billabong t-shirts and kept calling each other “Brah”. How could I argue with that?) These guys were macho types and typical teenagers, but they were able to teach me an important lesson.

Having confidence in your “good” gets you much farther than trying to reach your “perfect”.

Whether you climb the steps slowly, measuring the precise motions and planting your feet at an exact angle on the step or whether you run up the steps, your whole body wobbling, sometimes slipping on the slick limestone like the Mormon surfers did, you’ll still get to the top. You’ll get to the top no matter what.

What stops most people from accomplishing their goals is a fear of failure and a need for perfection. Lots of people have this idea that they simply aren’t good enough. They want to make sure that they do everything possible to keep their work from being criticized and to make their work (and themselves, by extension) universally liked.

But it doesn’t work that way. Nothing you do will ever be universally liked. If Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama and Martin Luther King Jr. aren’t universally liked, exactly what chance do you have? None.

It’s better to push forward stumbling and fall a couple times on your way to the top. It’s faster and you’ll have learned important lessons that you can use to improve your next ascent. Where the perfectionist will always take slow and accurate steps project after project, year after year, those who strive only to do their best and to do good will win both speed and accuracy over time.

You are human. Nothing you do will ever be perfect. For the really big goals, realize that your “good” is good enough. If you aim for perfect then you won’t get that three dimensional progress you’re looking for and your project will seem to have task after task piled on top of it until it’s out of control.

So, in short, this is what you have to stop doing to dominate big, long-term projects:

1. Don’t focus on the bigger picture. Be aware of the bigger picture but focus on doing an excellent job on the step you’re on now so that you can move on to the next step as soon as possible.
2. Stop viewing your goal as a mountain to climb in a single, high leap. No one climbs mountains in a leap. Focus on a steady “forward-and-up” motion for your project.
3. Don’t get caught up on making everything perfect. It will never be perfect. It might never feel “right”. What you need to focus on is cultivating an attitude that credits your “good” as being brilliant. Your “good” is the most anyone can expect out of you. Also realize that you can change things later. Whatever you do isn’t set in stone. If you come back to a step and find that you’d have liked to do it a different way, do it a different way. You have control of it at any time. Don’t think you have to make it perfect on the first draft.

With these steps, you should be able to tackle literally anything and overcome the procrastination that usually accompanies large projects.

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