When I was in college, I read this book called Just Enough Light for the Step I'm On. And to this day, it continues to remind me that when things get too big, too dark, or I don't see the path forward, all I have to do is just turn on my headlights and focus on what's right in front of me. Follow that white dotted line and stay the course.
I remember driving regularly for about an hour to go see my girlfriend in college and often, it was snowing heavily. I had an ‘85 Camaro and it was a disaster. When I couldn’t see anything, the snow was just overwhelming, you get that feeling, right? Should I stop? Should I just pull over, do nothing? Maybe just wait for the storm to pass? Or, I can look at my guidelines, the dotted line, the yellow line, and just take it easy, but keep moving forward. That's a choice. And that's what I did. Okay, there was that one time I spun out because it was rear-wheel drive, and it's Colorado, and who does that? But no matter what, I made it every single time. I made it to my destination.
My dad, a Colonel in the Air Force, retired chaplain, used to give me this golden gem. He would ask, “how do you eat an elephant?” And now my son asks me that every once in a while, when I get overwhelmed. He's like, “hey, how do you eat an elephant, dad?”
The answer is so easy to remember, but it's not so simple to apply. When you're in the dark. You're looking at this mammoth goal in front of you, that “one bite at a time” is hard to apply!
But I think that's why this little reminder showed up in front of me today. We have to remember to look for the light just in front of us. Not try to see everything. Just focus on the headlights. Sometimes we'll need the brights. Sometimes we might just handle the light that we have, but we have to choose to move.
And sometimes we forget that we have control of that, and we can use the guidelines to keep us on track. One mile marker, one bite is all that matters.
When I think about it, it's important to map out the journey so that when we're in the trenches, when we're on that road, when the storm is hitting, the GPS is already set and we're just executing.
I'm big on preparing. Whether you believe you can never plan too much, prepare too much or not. It gives me that confidence that I’m just moving one step at a time. I already have the plan in place, and it doesn't have to be perfect. I don't have to get “stuck in the squat,” as Zig Ziglar used to say, but I’m headed in the right direction, and then it's just up to me to keep moving forward, keep going. I can't let that darkness overwhelm me.
So what can we control? Napoleon Hill, one of my favorites, Think and Grow Rich, you’ve probably heard of, says “you can either control your mind or it controls you.” I like to make a checklist of what I can control in the storm in front of me. Take a sheet of paper, just write it all down. What can I control in this storm? Then focus on the actions that I can take to make progress and chip away at it.
Progress breeds confidence. Confidence then helps me weather the storm. Success is progress. Progress equals success. So I just keep moving.
When I think about what I can control…
🔥 I’m the one who has to turn on the headlights.
🔥 I’m in control of how fast I move, how big of a bite I take, how much light I give, what I focus my attention on.
🔥 So I choose to light the way and focus on controlling what's right inside of me, because that's all I can control. What's inside, what I actually do.
🔥 When I focus on that, I feel complete.