The Little Things

Life is made up of little things, little moments. little victories. There are the big things, of course, but sometimes it seems that they come around so infrequently.

Elder Uchtdorf, when speaking at the General Relief Society Meeting this fall said, "In the meantime, be thankful for all the small successes in your home, your family relationships, your education and livelihood, your Church participation and personal improvement. Like the forget-me-nots, these successes may seem tiny to you and they may go unnoticed by others, but God notices them and they are not small to Him. If you consider success to be only the most perfect rose or dazzling orchid, you may miss some of life's sweetest experiences."

I think I fall prey to a specific mistake. That is that the end result is to be celebrated but that the day to day sacrifices, the small things I do to reach a goal, are no big deal. I specifically remember two moments in law school where the excitement of getting two really good grades my first semester caused me a feeling of celebration and euphoria. The first happened when I found out I got a B+ in civil procedures. A B+ was much better than I had expected. I had hoped for a C or better, but it was a hard course, and I just didn't know how well I would do. I remember standing up from my computer and jumping around my apartment. I was ecstatic. And then I got my grade for contracts. It was an A. An A!!! I was in class when I found out, and so I didn't jump up and dance, but I could not stop smiling about it. I was quite certain that I had failed that exam.

But what about the day to day of that first semester? Did I celebrate when I finished a particularly difficult reading assignment? Did I celebrate when I finished a section of my outlines? Did I celebrate the forty-five hours I spend preparing for my civil procedures final? Not to mention the countless hours before finals came when I studied and worked to understand the material? Those grades were something big to me. But I didn't pat myself on the back during all those months before I got those grades.

And so today I am going to give myself a little praise. I set a goal to get up at seven a.m. I've now done it two days in a row! It's the start of a new habit, and I'm proud of myself for doing it even when it is dark outside and all I want to do is crawl back into bed and sleep some more. I exercised for two hours both yesterday and today. It's not exactly warm out, and I have to make an effort to bundle up and brave the cold. My joints have been aching since Tuesday, but I'm doing it because I made the promise. In fact, I've been diligently exercising for most of the past five months. I'm proud of my efforts to improve my health. There are more goals, and so far, I'm keeping those goals. I'm working to build habits. And in three months time, maybe there will be that big victory moment, the day that I say "Hallelujah! I lost fifteen pounds!" Or, "Sweet! I am working full time!"

But for today and each day after, I am going to be proud of the little victories that are leading to better habits and greater success.