When I was younger, my father used to tell me that he could only think “one box at a time.” He used to say that he could only focus on one thing, one box, in each moment. I never understood why; how could you forget about everything else except what is currently in the moment? Now that I am older, I see what my father was trying to teach me.
Although he usually used this as an excuse for me to leave him alone, I never stopped trying to understand how he could concentrate on the current moment. Now that I’m a junior in college and life passes by faster everyday, I’ve realized something. The big picture of life is scary. Thinking of every assignment, every task that needs to get done, and every goal I hope to achieve is scary. I find that when I look at the picture I hope my life to become, it causes anxiety and a sour mood. That’s where my father’s lesson comes in handy. Instead of thinking of life’s painting as a whole, focus on each individual stroke, for without each stroke, there would be no painting. When I get the syllabus at the beginning of a 7 weeklong term, I tend to freak out and get anxiety almost immediately. But if I take it one assignment, one exam, one week at a time, that syllabus no longer scares me, and simply becomes steps, boxes.
There are some cases where a syllabus isn’t laid out as a roadmap. Sometimes, we are going at situations blind. It’s not about seeing the whole staircase; it’s about taking the first step. To get through the hardest of journeys, we simply need to take just one step at a time. The hardest part is to just keep taking steps. Don’t try to overhaul your life overnight. Instead, focus on making one small change at a time; focus on only one box. Overtime, and before you know it, the small steps will add to miles.
Getting knocked down in life is given. Getting up and taking steps to move forward is a choice. It doesn’t matter how slow you go as long as you don’t stop moving. Although he may have meant it as a joke, my father taught me a real lesson that I wont soon forget.
