The Small and Simple Principle: Just Do Something

It happens. That day when you eat yourself sick. You feel terrible, and quite frankly, you know you are not anywhere near healthy. And so you tell yourself, “Next week I’m going to start eating better and begin a consistent workout.” Monday always seems to be that magic day we set for starting new. Or, you lose your temper, yet again, and you feel sick emotionally. And so you tell yourself, “Tomorrow I’m going to be more patient. Tomorrow I’m going to start learning to control my temper.” Tomorrow is also a magic moment (we tell ourselves).

We have a natural propensity for visualizing ourselves being better (spiritually, physically, and emotionally) in the future. Next week, Monday, next month, when I conquer X, next year, tomorrow…they all share one thing in common: they are not now.

Turns out, the number of things we really desire and want to do are often blocked by the fact that we are currently not in motion. We are not in any state of progression on a negative behavior or characteristic. We are in a rut, per say. We may have exercised our mental or emotional capacities toward visualizing a future of motion, or progression. We imagine what it will be like to be more healthy, in better health, better at studying our scriptures, better at being kind, better at serving, and more patient and forgiving. And this is most certainly a good thing. But, it is not yet “motion.” We haven’t done anything yet.

Motion, itself, turns out to be the hardest thing. Progression is difficult. Why? Because we want to succeed instantly. We want to have what we want and visualize, right now. We want minimal effort to be required and success to be guaranteed. Thus, we tend to procrastinate progression, or an action of motion, until there’s no other choice. Or, until we feel we have sufficient impetus to make ourselves succeed. We seek for “the perfect starting conditions” as the catalyst to get the ball rolling. We don’t procrastinate because we don’t want to progress. It’s not that at all. It’s that we want progression to be easy and to work and for us never to botch this behavior/characteristic again.

We don’t want to fail and have to try again…to get the ball rolling again, right? We don’t want to waste energy on a failure because the conditions weren’t perfect for us to succeed.

Small and Simple Principle

In Alma 37:6-7 we read:

Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness is me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

And the Lord doth work by means to bring about his great and eternal purposes; and by very small means the Lord doth confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls.

So, let’s put this in modern language:

You might think this is ridiculous; but I’m telling you that by one small thing, one small action, one small effort, great things result; and small things like this often surprise and shock people who claim greater wisdom (than God).

God works by such simple things to bring about His great and eternal purposes (goals); and by very small things (actions, efforts) God surprises and shocks people who claim to be wise with His ability to bring people to salvation.

These verses teach a clear truth: it doesn’t take much to progress.

However, it doesn’t say anything about succeeding perfectly at any time or that we’ll never fail (temporarily) and this, more than anything keeps most of us in our rut, determining to wait until we are guaranteed to conquer. However, if you read it closely, it does imply that: if you get in a rut again, it only takes a small act to get going again. And this is the key. Whether we succeed fabulously and only lapse once in a while, or whether we lapse most of the time and succeed only rarely; the eternal principle here is that we simply have to keep doing something, even something small, to keep progressing. It will only ever (and always) take something small to progress and to get ourselves moving in the direction we desire—again.

Just Do Something

In my later years, I have come to discover that I still frequently have those, “Ug, I need to do something about this,” moments just as much as I did when I was a bit younger. But, I’m learning not to say, “Okay, Monday I’m going to…” or “Tomorrow, I’m going to…” I’ve learned to say, “What can I do right now? What small, tiny effort/action can I take to get the ball rolling on this spiritual/physical progression I need to make?”

Oh, the impact this tiny change has had in my life! I can’t even begin to expound how it has changed me!

If I’ve had a bad three hours as a mother. It’s tempting to think, “OK, tomorrow I’ll be better.” But instead, against all my current feelings of impatience, anger, even momentary despair, I bow my head, say a little prayer, then grit my teeth and figure out where I need to say sorry, and what I need to do to change the circumstances between me and my sweet kiddo right then. And wow!

If I’ve had a rough week (or month…) eating and not exercising very much. When it hits me, instead of writing out a beautiful exercise routine that I need to begin on Monday of the following week, I get up and go for a walk, immediately. Or, I do a few crunches and planks while watching a cartoon with my little girl. Or, I run to the store and plan a healthier meal for dinner, right then.

If I’ve failed to have family night or study the new Come Follow Me. I stop right then, pull it up, and find one thing I can talk about with my husband or sweet little girl. I do something small, right then.

The Result

The result of this, “What can I do right this moment to make an immediate change? What small thing can I do to get the ball rolling?” has been that the ball starts rolling. It’s amazing! There is an immediate change in my heart and mind. There is a noticeable change in the way I feel spiritually, physically, emotionally. And it only improves as I continue to act right there, in the moment. Not waiting for some future idealized time where I’m more prepared or magically more ready.

There is a removal of suspense of, “Will I actually remember to contact the people I minister to tomorrow?” because even though all I sent was a tiny text today, I feel better because I’ve done something today. And it nearly always leads to something I can do tomorrow.

This new Come Follow Me curriculum could fall under this same category. We could say, “Oops, I missed this Sunday, I guess we’ll start next Sunday.” We could say, “Well, I didn’t read through it at all and prepare anything, so I guess we’ll start next Sunday. Or, I didn’t read the scripture passages first, so I guess I can’t do the activity here. Or, any other number of fails…

Or, we could trust in the small and simple principle. Open the ap/manual and find one small thing. Just do something small. Read one paragraph, one verse. Pick out one phrase that we see as we skim through.

Our temper could continue to plague us with no forward progression at all. Or, we could stop right that moment and ask, “What can I do right now, God, to start in the smallest way to work on my temper?” Maybe it’s an apology. Maybe it’s reading a couple verses of scripture. Maybe it’s pondering for only two minutes why you react the way you do to the most recent fail situation.

Our health could continue to plague us because we keep waiting until we find the perfect moment. It could continue causing us trouble because we keep lapsing back into old habits and we think that means that doing something small won’t matter. Or, anytime we feel the need to improve or change we can ask, “God, what can I do right now to start in the smallest way to work on this?”

Just do something. Because God cannot lie, which means even the smallest, tiniest effort will make a change. And that small change will give us the momentum we need to make incremental progression on all the things we are trying to do that are good. The small and simple principle…it works.

BT