A much has we’d all like to make everyone around us believe that our lives are always good and dandy, more often than not, the opposite is usually true.

Life sometimes sucks, and situations are less than ideal. But unfortunately, that is sometimes the way life works.

These situations can often feel overwhelming, stressful, and just downright unfair.

I like to call these situations in life the elephants. Elephants are big, and overwhelming, and feel like they can crush you with one misstep. Struggles in life often feel this way too.

Because elephants are so big, there’s only one way to eat them.

I realize this is one of the worst segue ever, but bare with me.

The only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

This revolutionary idea isn’t revolutionary at all. It’s coined by Creighton Abrams, who was a US Army general during the Vietnam War. This isn’t a new idea, but I think it might be one of the best I’ve ever heard.

The elephants that make up our lives seem overwhelming and stressful because we think about all the what if’s, the questions, the future—everything that makes stressful situations seem even more stressful.

Instead, it makes a big struggle seem much more manageable when you do take it one small step at a time. Focusing on each individual step rather than the overwhelming enormity of the problem at hand makes it seem a little bit better.

It doesn’t make the problem go away, but it does ease the stress of the situation just a little bit. I realize this is hard—I am by no means an expert.

I think purely as a part of human nature, we tend to focus on the future and want to solve our problems as quickly as we can to make them go away. And that causes us to feel an overwhelming amount of stress and pressure.

Its valuable to set small goals within the scope of solving a large problem. That way, as each small thing gets accomplished, it eventually adds up to one gigantic elephant dispearing. It takes time, and patience, but I have full belief that eventually, with patience, that elephant will get eaten.

So, really, there’s only one correct way to eat an elephant. You can try and swallow the whole thing at once, but in reality, that’s only going to give you an upset stomach.

So you might as well grab your favorite knife and fork (if you’re like me and have one of those) and enjoy every bite of that elephant. And take something away and learn something from every single bite.

Because at the end of the day:

“When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time.” -Creighton Abrams