A distant relative on my husband's side of the family was this little grandmother. Being Italian, of course she was called Nonni (pronounced naw-ni). Nonni was a petite little woman, maybe just a bit over 5 feet tall, lucky to break 100 pounds. And being in her early 80's, she was frail.
Now there was an old stove in the basement of the house where she lived with her daughter, the grandchildren grown with families of their own. This stove was in Nonni's way. She wanted it across the room, against a wall. But what could she do? She was too small, too weak to move it herself.
But everyday, when she went down to the basement to do laundry or whatever else, she'd sidle up to the stove and lean against it, using all of her 100 pounds to push. Maybe it would move an inch, maybe not.
Fraction by fraction, that stove shifted.
It took Nonni months to move it--but she did.
And so it goes with writing or whatever endeavor we face that looks too daunting to attempt. Don't set impossible goals--for Nonni that would be immediately moving the stove across the room; for you that might be finishing a novel in a month, or losing weight, or overcoming an injury. But take a little time every day, or whenever the opportunity arises, like Nonni passing that stove, to do just a bit. At first it doesn't look like you've really accomplished anything, but eventually you will see you're achieving your goal. Nonni was determined to move that stove, and I'm betting she was smiling with satisfaction when she saw it halfway there, or even just a quarter of the way across the floor because even though every day brought only an incremental change, she was moving that stove by herself. Improbable as it was, she refused to accept it was impossible.
Now go accomplish your goals.
Char
