A lot of us have the same problem: There’s something we want to accomplish, and we don’t know how to make it happen.

We undertake the journey with excitement and cheering crowds, like Dorothy on the yellow brick road, and then fizzle out when everyone else has gone home and we realize how hard it’s going to be.

Or we work diligently, day by day, and then realize that we don’t seem to be getting any closer to our desired outcome.

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The lawn did not appear to be fully mown, unless the person who had mowed it intended, as a work of art or landscape design, to leave a rectangular patch of grass to continue to grow.

The lawnmower was nowhere in evidence. The rest of the yard appeared to be tidy.

When I walked by again, tomorrow, next week, or next month, would this patch of taller grass still be there? Would it be mown flat? Or would more of the lawn have become wild?

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I had big plans for the summer I was twelve.

I can’t remember what all of them were, but I know one of them was to practice the piano every day for thirty minutes. Maybe I was also going to write or draw every day and keep my room tidy.

Apparently, I haven’t changed a whole lot in terms of the things I’d like to accomplish. But I’m a lot better at sticking to my routines these days. What I didn’t know when I was twelve was that when, inevitably, I failed to follow through on my commitment, it wasn’t a permanent failure. I could always try again.

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My sister, a mother of three, dazzled the crowd in the school talent show, accompanying her daughters’ singing on cup percussion.

No one had known she possessed this skill, and their minds were blown. “You’re so talented!” they exclaimed.

She shrugged. “I spent a few hours learning it.”

My sister’s real accomplishment was to believe she could accomplish what she set out to do, and then to follow through by putting in the necessary time. Anyone could; not everyone does.

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When you’re writing an essay, you have to organize your thoughts, create an outline, and incorporate your research, while crafting sentences and paragraphs — and these skills depend on solid handwriting or typing skills, confident spelling and punctuation, and strong mental stamina.

This is a lot to manage. So whenever possible, we want to isolate skills. To do this, we use Tiny Tasks. We want to tell the student exactly what’s expected, ask them to carry out the task, and praise them for a job well done. Then we do the next thing, and offer praise. 

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