Little Steps Can Do Big Things

LITTLE STEPS CAN DO BIG THINGS.

A few months ago, an idea popped into my mind as I was shopping in a multi-vendor marketplace called The Painted Tree.  I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to open a booth here that brings together my love for repurposed home décor, my music merchandise, and that also supports my friends and their products?

I came home and mentioned it to my husband, Craig.  He thought it was a great idea.  I knew that this place typically has a waiting list for new vendors and few spaces available, but why not fill out an application and see what happens?  Little steps can do big things.

As I chronicle in this moment what happened next, I’m suddenly reminded of a high school memory when little steps led to a big thing.  How interesting that I’m thinking of this now.  I’ve been down this road before, and it had a happy ending…I hope that’s a good sign for my present-moment big thing.

Some might consider my big thing back in high school not such a big deal, but it was to me.  Why?  Because I didn’t think I was capable of it:  A simple idea coming to life before my eyes in a big way.  A tall way.  As in, a 12-foot-tall ice cream soda float rolling through my home town Homecoming Parade on a flatbed trailer.

I was a cheerleader and the student council class treasurer, and we needed an idea for the Junior class Homecoming parade float.  All of the floats I’d witnessed in past years were typical themes of our “mighty Lions” team destroying the upcoming opponent in the football game, but I thought it would be fun to do something…unexpected.  When I spoke aloud my idea in our brainstorming meeting, I thought it would be quickly shot down. It was mighty, but it was the opposite of a ferocious lion and had nothing to do with football or winning.

“What if we made our float be…an actual float?”

My classmates were listening.  I thought they would think it a silly idea, but no one had shot me down yet.  “Like…a huge ice cream float…with whipped cream and a cherry on top and a giant straw sticking out of it?”

For some reason, they all loved the idea!  It opened the way of our planning all of the steps it would take to actually build it.  First step:  Sketching out a giant frame in the shape of an old-fashioned soda shop glass.  Next, strategizing how the chicken wire mesh would be stretched around the constructed frame and puffed into a whipped cream shape at the top.  We envisioned how the vanilla + chocolate + strawberry ice cream layers would be brought to life in Neapolitan shades of white, brown and pink tissue poms stuffed into the chicken wire holes.

Wow!  Was this idea (that I thought they would think silly) really going to happen?

It happened, and we won a prize for the best float in the parade that year.  It was embellished with giant, glitter-red letters that read “The Junior Float.”  Topped with puffs of white cotton whipped-creamy batting, it had a huge straw and was garnished with a watermelon-sized cherry.  It was a really big deal to me, seeing something from my imagination become reality and receive an award.  Our mighty Lions winning the Homecoming game was “the cherry on top” of the experience!

 It’s one of my favorite high school memories, made even “sweeter” by the fun we all had building it together.  It took a lot of little steps, and a lot of little chicken-wire stuffed holes, to bring that big ice cream soda float to life.

It’s been fun reminiscing about those Class of ‘85 high school days in these scrapbook photos.  Now, I’m ‘Back to the Future’ in this present-day big thing…

The idea of a new boutique booth kept resurfacing on my heart, so after the holiday season I filled out an application.  I was expecting a waiting process but got an immediate response.  We went to look at the space options, and the perfect one, in the perfect spot, perfectly sized happened to be available.  It seemed impulsive to say yes to a new venture like this, but “a little voice” told me all these open doors were God’s perfect timing.  Why wait?  I put the deposit down for the booth rental and signed the contract.  Little steps can do big things. (Gulp. This train was now leaving the station with me on board, about to move much faster than a float in a parade).

With only two weeks provided in the contract to get the space ready and stocked for opening, it seemed like an impossibility to create the look and feel I was envisioning for the space along with everything else that needed quick implementation.  Lining up the inventory, pricing, creating a new logo and ordering branded items…the list went on.  Inside the booth, painting the space prepared the canvas for aesthetic construction to begin—sans chicken wire this time.  Next steps were hanging lights, inventory display fixtures, and creating tulle curtains I was picturing framing the entry.   I spent chunks of time at night handling paperwork, ordering and doing administrative things that needed to happen.  I’m so thankful that my husband is the world’s best helper.  A friend stopped by the space one day and helped me execute the placement of things on the walls.  (In the words of Paul McCartney and John Lennon, also sung by the late, great Joe Cocker, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”)  :-)

 Little steps really CAN do big things!  After just two weeks of many little steps, I was now looking at a big vision come to life.  Filled with all of the priced and tagged initial inventory, it includes some products of friends I want to celebrate and support in their creative journey.  Next steps:  Starting to share little videos on social media that I’ve made with my cell phone along the way, posted on newly-created Facebook and Instagram business pages.  An app on my phone  helps me make these little videos as professional as I can manage to do, especially for someone who was a turtle tech not so long ago!

In some ways it doesn’t feel real.  A little idea became a big reality in the span of 14 days.  (It seems I’m in a season of going from turtle to tornado)!  It has happened in many little steps, but little steps can add up to big accomplishments.

If you’re reading this and thinking of something you’ve had on your heart that you’ve been telling yourself is just too big or too impossible, take it from me:  The place to begin is to start.  The time to start is now.  LITTLE STEPS CAN DO BIG THINGS.  I’d love to hear from you when your big thing comes to life!

“TRULY I TELL YOU, IF YOU HAVE FAITH AS SMALL AS A MUSTARD SEED, YOU CAN SAY TO THIS MOUNTAIN, 'MOVE FROM HERE TO THERE,' AND IT WILL MOVE. NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU."  -MATTHEW 17:20(B)

“WHATEVER YOU CAN DO OR DREAM YOU CAN, BEGIN IT.  BOLDNESS HAS GENIUS, POWER, AND MAGIC IN IT.” - JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

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