I’m working on a blouse for me. I’d love for it to be done quickly. Stitch it up, put it on, move to the next project. But it takes longer than that.
The sewing machine makes quick work of it, but before I could start, the fabric needed to be ironed. The pattern needed to be traced off the master sheet. Then the pattern traced onto the fabric. The pieces cut out. Then stitching pieces together, some by machine – oh so fast! Iron each seam as I go – those details making the difference between a fine finish and one just thrown together. Then hand stitching – so much slower than the machine, but still moving forward one stitch at a time. Controlled.
This all made me think about how we behave when we begin a new path, whether its to eat healthier, exercise more, start a business or learn a new skill. We decide on the path and then we want to be done. To be finished. But it doesn’t work that way. We need to take one step at a time. Each part building on the last. You never get anywhere if you don’t take that first step, make that first better choice.
My fabric sat in a basket for nearly 2 years waiting for me to begin. I knew what I wanted it to be, but I didn’t take the steps necessary to begin the making.
For nearly 2 years it was just a vague idea of a blouse, living in my mind, but not becoming anything.
I said I wanted a new blouse, but saying it didn’t make it be. I needed to take those steps, one at a time, to move along from what I thought it could be to what it is finally becoming. How many other things have I done that with – thinking that I’d like something to happen but never actually taking the steps to make it so?
A blouse doesn’t become a blouse on its own, it takes one step, and one stitch at a time.
You don’t become healthier overnight. You need to decide to eat healthier one bite at a time, each meal building on the last.
You won’t lose weight in a day. You need to move one step at a time, each day becoming stronger and able to move more than the last.
Decluttering a lifetime of objects and collecting doesn’t happen with the snap of your fingers. You need to touch each object, one at a time, and make decisions on what stays and what goes, each filled box of things to get rid of leaving behind a small footprint of space and fresh air.
Moving away from processed food, fast fashion *, big business, it all won’t happen unless you start. Decide what you want and where you want to be, and then start. You’ll get there one step at a time.
*If you’d like to learn more about the problem of fast fashion, you can read more here, and here, and here.