You Have to Fix the Little Things to Fix the Big Things

We all want to fix the big thing.

We want to fix the business that isn’t making enough money, the body that doesn’t feel like ours anymore, the relationship that feels disconnected, the bank account that keeps making us nervous, or the life that somehow stopped feeling like the one we actually wanted.

So naturally, we start looking for a big solution.

A new plan. A new coach. A new strategy. A new routine. A complete overhaul.

But after almost 40 years of living, building businesses, raising kids, training my body, screwing things up, rebuilding things and having GOD humble me more times than I can count, I’ve realized something:

Most big things don’t need to be fixed first. The little things do.

Because the big thing usually didn’t become a big thing overnight.

It started small.

It was the workout you skipped once, then twice, then eventually stopped doing altogether. It was the $20 you kept spending because it’s only $20. It was the conversation you kept putting off because tonight wasn’t a good night. It was the task in your business you knew needed to get done, but something else always felt more urgent.

It was the little pain you kept working around. The resentment you pretended wasn’t that serious. The boundary you knew you needed to set. The prayer you kept praying while ignoring the action you already knew you needed to take.

None of those things seem life-changing when they happen.

That’s what makes them so easy to ignore.

The little things become the big things.

I think sometimes we make change harder than it needs to be because we convince ourselves that fixing our life requires completely changing our life.

It usually doesn’t.

Sometimes your business doesn’t need another strategy. You need to follow up with the people who already told you they were interested.

Sometimes your body doesn’t need another diet. You need to stop eating out three nights a week and wondering why Monday through Thursday isn’t undoing Friday through Sunday.

Sometimes your relationship doesn’t need a vacation to reconnect. You need to have the uncomfortable conversation you’ve both been avoiding for the last three months.

And sometimes you don’t need to “find yourself.”

You need to start keeping the promises you keep making to yourself.

That one stings a little, huh?

Me too.

We get really good at living with things we should have fixed.

This might be the part nobody likes talking about.

We are incredibly adaptable. Give us something uncomfortable long enough and eventually we’ll figure out how to live around it.

We normalize things.

We make excuses for them.

We tell ourselves, It’s fine.

And because nothing completely falls apart today, we assume we can deal with it tomorrow.

Until one day, the thing we kept calling little isn’t little anymore.

Then we look at our body, our marriage, our finances, our business or sometimes our entire freaking life and think, How did I get here?

Usually?

Little by little.

Which is actually really good news.

Because that means you can start changing it the exact same way.

Little by little.

You probably already know what the little thing is.

That’s the annoying part.

Most of us aren’t actually confused about everything we need to change. We just don’t particularly like the answer.

Because the answer usually requires us to do something inconvenient.

Make the call.

Send the email.

Cancel the subscription.

Get up earlier.

Go to bed earlier.

Cook the meal.

Move your body.

Apologize.

Set the boundary.

Have the conversation.

Stop buying the thing.

Start the thing you’ve been talking about starting for six months.

We keep waiting for some massive breakthrough when sometimes the breakthrough is simply doing the small thing we already know needs to be done.

And then doing it again tomorrow.

GOD can open the door. You still have to walk through it.

My faith has taught me this lesson more times than I probably wanted to learn it.

I can pray for GOD to change something in my life while simultaneously ignoring the things He has already put in front of me to do.

I can ask Him for a healthier body and refuse to take care of it.

I can ask Him to grow my business and keep avoiding the work that scares me.

I can ask Him to heal a relationship while refusing to have the conversation.

I can ask Him for a different life while continuing to make the exact same decisions that created the one I’m currently living.

Prayer matters.

Faith matters.

But so does action.

Sometimes the miracle isn’t GOD magically removing the problem. Sometimes it’s Him giving you the courage, discipline, wisdom or opportunity to finally do something about it.

You prayed about it. Now pay attention to what He’s asking you to do with it.

So stop trying to fix everything.

If something in your life feels overwhelmingly big right now, make it smaller.

Instead of asking, How do I fix all of this? ask yourself a different question:

What is one little thing I know needs to change?

Not ten things.

One.

What are you tolerating that you know you shouldn’t be?

What conversation are you avoiding?

What promise to yourself do you keep breaking?

What tiny decision keeps creating a problem you eventually have to deal with?

What have you been praying about that might actually require some action from you?

Start there.

Fix that little thing.

Then fix the next one.

Because your life probably didn’t get here because of one massive decision. It was built through thousands of little ones.

And the beautiful part is that the life you want will be built the exact same way.

The little things add up.

Make sure they’re adding up in your favor.