Chipping-Away List

[Listening & Seeing - V]

Do you have a to-do list? Is it full of small tasks that need doing but might get lost in the shuffle? Seeing them all in one place is so helpful, isn’t it? A to-do list helps create priorities and make schedules. And they help with the satisfaction that comes with checking off the to-dos that are completed.

Everyone needs to brush the dog and mow the lawn and pick up Johnny from baseball. But those things are mostly on the list because of their immediacy rather than their contribution to the world we dream is possible.

Do you have a chipping-away list? Like a to-do list but not for urgent, day-to-day things, but for the long-term project that you’ve been dreaming about for ten years? You can see it; I know you can. It has been inspiring you, challenging you, poking and prodding your imagination for a long time. So, why not a chipping-away list?

The difference between merely seeing that thing that makes a big difference and getting it done is a to-do list. A long-term to-do list—a chipping away list. Broken up into small, accomplish-able tasks.

Chip.
Chip.
Chip.

Eventually we will have chipped away our own version of Mt. Rushmore: a project that was only a dream for year.

We should all have a chipping-away list for the radical changes we want to see.