Your Tiny Efforts = Major Breakthroughs

Craft Talk

One day, while driving down a scenic New Hampshire road, I spied a huge patch of bamboo. It was taller than me, shooting straight up toward the sky. I’d driven past the bare spot dozens of times, but suddenly - there it was!

Bamboo is an interesting plant.

For the first five years, bamboo can barely be seen as it builds extensive underground root networks. And then within six weeks, it can explode ninety feet into the air.

The bamboo I drove past didn’t grow six feet overnight, but it seemed like it, especially because I can go weeks between passing it.

All of those years, without me noticing, the roots were being nourished by dirt, worms, water, and partial sunlight. Slowly, slowly, the plants were growing, dividing, and “taking root“ under the ground.

I’m rereading Atomic Habits. I love this book. James Clear uses the bamboo example in relation to our habits.

Every small act we take is enforcing a habit for, or against, the person we are slowing growing.

We don’t notice slow-growing roadside bamboo because the progress is slow and mostly hidden.

We don’t notice the tiny progress we’re making in life because it too, is slow.

The slowness of becoming is frustrating. We’re impatient, think our effort is wasted, that we’ll never get there. But not so! It all adds up. The end goal, really, is far less important than the trajectory we are on.

There are so many examples of this slow and steady “progress” - cancer and mold are slow growing and largely undetected until “suddenly” it’s everywhere. On a more positive note, how about conception to birth? In just nine months after the meeting of sperm and egg (miraculous in itself), a woman’s body grows a tiny human! If you’ve ever seen The Miracle of Life, well, you know it is a MIRACLE. Because that baby was once microscopic, dividing cells!

Atomic: 1. an extremely small amount of a thing…

2. the source of immense energy or power

Habit: 1. A routine or practice performed regularly; an automatic response to a specific situation.

There are things we want and need to accomplish this year.

There is a person we are evolving into being.

If we are the bamboo-

What are the best conditions for us to thrive in?

What support networks must we get into place?

Who do we need to be accountable to?

A slight tweak in the right direction repeated over time? That’s a habit.

Habits x Time = BOOM. Atomic. Big. Major Breakthrough.

I often tell people I wrote my first book during the baby’s nap time. We laugh together, but I’m not joking. That happened. It took years. But that nap time was the perfect, completely unreliable amount of time for me to start the habit of writing at a very furious, haphazard pace before baby howled.

It became a habit that I am still trying to feed every single day.

What habit are you trying to make or break?

MAKE IT SMALL.

Direction is more important than how fast or slow you are.

What’s your 1% better than yesterday? (1% is literally a teeny tiny step forward - like opening a Google doc and putting a title on it. Or unearthing your art journal. Or laying out your exercise clothes for the next day. It’s showing up. Consistently).

This week: remember the bamboo. You will probably not see progress for awhile, maybe for a long time, but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. It is. And just wait - it’s going to SUDDENLY explode. And it’s going to be amazing.

Amy

the bamboo roots on my writing desk...

---

The Last Part:

Feeling: So sad about the fires in Los Angeles. I feel pretty helpless here in New Hampshire.

Feeling: Mighty hopeful see so many people and organizations helping others 💖

Listening to: Mr. Dickens and His Carol

Reading: Atomic Habits, The God of the Woods, and Both Things Are True

Eating: No sugar! I’ve gone five days so far and am going one more week. Um, is this a HABIT I’m forming?

Taking: Creatine. 5mg a day per Dr. Mary Claire Haver

Running: Inside on a treadmill. If it ever gets above 30 degrees again, I’ll be the first one out there.

---

The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair is part-mystery, part understanding of the human heart 💖

Ten Thousand Tries is Golden’s quest to save his dad and the soccer team ⚽

The McNifficents is one summer with six rambunctious kids and their miniature-schnauzer nanny 🐕 New Hampshire’s 2024 Great Reads for Kids selection!