Bird by bird.

This seminal book by Anne Lamott subtitled “Some instructions on Writing and Life” has been recommended repeatedly by authors and business persons alike.

Among the many lessons that Lamott teaches, one stands out for me. No matter how difficult or challenging the task in front of us is, breaking it down to separate smaller tasks and doing them one by one is the best way to tackle the challenge.

Complicated goals need to be broken down into specific actionable sub-goals. Until we do that, many goals do not become actionable or achievable.

Here’s Anne, explaining this with a beautiful story:

“I also remember a story that I know I’ve told elsewhere but that over and over helps me to get a grip: thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

Anne Lamott, Bird by bird