Mark Silver commented on “Do Epic Shit” and addressed a critical point that needs more discussion. I’ll quote the bit of his comment that I think is most salient:
Keeping small, and not aiming to be “epic” can actually be incredibly, powerfully effective, one small step at a time.”
In many ways, I could’t agree more. The way I see the “Do Epic Shit” mantra is not a prescription for how to do things, but instead a prescription for what to do. The distinction that I’d like to draw out is “doing small things” vs. “doing big things in small steps.”
“Epic” is Contextual
Doing epic things requires us to do two things: 1) take the long view, and 2) know where we’re starting from. Following the thread of Mark’s comment, Dr. King clearly had both things in mind. In his time, racial animosity made it such that a meal shared between the two races was huge. At the same time, Dr. King was realistic enough to know that such a change would take time; he had the long view.
Similarly, what seems to be the small feat of changing socio-economic classes is epic for some people. To arrive in this country with nothing and be able to build a future for your children such that they can have a life you couldn’t is a feat because of a) where you’re starting from and b) how long it can take to attain that future.
That said, it’s hard to say what’s audacious and epic in general terms. But it’s the ideal that we’re seeking – the ideal to push the limits of ourselves and actualize our potential. It’s recreating ourselves each new day with the long view in mind and understanding that we are each writing a chapter in the story of humanity.
The Journey of A Thousand Miles…
Every great thing that anybody or any society has done has started with one small step. Every building started with a shovel breaking the earth, every painting started with a stroke, every book began with one word that began with one letter.
The difference between the great things and the small things is not in how they were done, but why they were done and how tenacious the people doing the creating were. Some people never dared to dream and took small steps; others were daunted by the journey and stopped partway; a rare few looked to the horizon, smiled, and resolved to take the small steps along the long, weary path.
Let’s not forget that epic shit is about people as much as it is about things. The conversation hitherto has been focused on great “things,” and some of that is a misfortune of the English language. Inspiring people to do epic things is epic itself; being a positive social change agent is epic; building a strong community is epic.
So the call to “Do Epic Shit” is merely a call to look to the horizons and dream, but we can’t focus merely on the bigness of the dream or be content to dream. It’s the call to see the world different than the way it is and to accept that it’s within our power to change it. I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes by Oliver Wendell Holmes:
I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving… we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie the anchor.
Your two small steps: 1) look to the horizon, and 2) put up your sails.
(Thanks to Andre for the title of this post.)
I had assumed in your last post that your “epic” and “audacious” was entirely relative. After all, when I had depression it was audacious and epic just to get out of bed in the morning. Epic need not be huge in absolute terms, but huge in the context of its surroundings. It may well be quite small in fact.
I’ve been meaning to write my own post about acting audaciously, which I see as having the courage to do something that you might not expect to do. To step beyond the bounds of the average in whatever small way that might mean.
Joely Blacks last blog post..A lesson in dealing with anger
Great stuff Charlie, I agree completely. Dream big and keep taking small steps till you reach your dream.
I am a dreamer, I have a lot of major life goals. However over the past few years I have been tranisitioning to someone who makes those dreams come true. From those major goals for my life I break things down, I have goals for the year, plot out the major steps to achieve a few life goals at a time and begin making progress on them.
I just watched a great interview with Alain Robert, the human spiderman who climbs the worlds biggest skyscrapers without any safety devices. Although Alain could not crystalize his process that well a fellow climber commented that it was simply to focus on each hand and foot hold, don’t look down and don’t look to far ahead until your reach the top – just keep slowly climbing up.
Huge achievements do not come easily, its typically a successions of smaller steps taken to get there. The epic thinking is the inspiration, getting it done requires perspiration. Without it epic thinking is really just mental masturbation.
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I subscribed. You nailed it with think big take small steps. But you only have to take small steps if you can’t figure out how to take a big step. So sometimes you actually can “Think Big. Act Big.”
Stephen – Rat Race Traps last blog post..How to be Successful by Taking Responsibility
I’m also a new subscriber after reading this post and the original Epic Shit post. Good blog, this one.
I didn’t always understand that Mother Teresa quote: “We can do no great things, only small things with great love.” I thought she meant it was the only the small, intimate actions that matter.
But now I see that life is nothing but small intimate things. We can’t ‘do’ projects, we can only do their steps, tend to their details.
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What this brings out for me is that epic and huge are worth doing, and small and tiny and personal and intimate are worth doing, and they may dance together in all kinds of ways. It’s medium and regular and ordinary and usual that need a long, cold look to see if they’re worth doing. They have to (IMO) serve something either epic or tiny or both.
Love the paradoxes in this, fun to play around with.
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