Thinking 'small' can lead you to the 'bigger' career goal

"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies"

- Mother Teresa

Grand theories encompass our everyday life and everyone emphasises the need to look at the larger picture. After all, it is necessary to not let small things derail us from achieving our larger goals. However, while thinking big is essential in every walk of life, it is time to speak of an intervention not many people stress upon: 'thinking small'. The two are not strictly removed from each other and sometimes, in fact, we need to think small to drive the big change. Relying too heavily on the bigger picture can distract us from the minute base-level things we can do to let our larger missions unfold. It is time to get practical without being deluded by the magnificence of the big things and this mode of action merits an analysis in closer detail.

This approach of "thinking small" has found attention in the discipline of Economics. Timothy Ogden, writing for Stanford Social Innovation Review, in a review of Poor Economics by Nobel laureates Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo notes a worthy illustration to think the other way when dealing with an issue as massive as education for the poor,

"For instance, it's common for poor families to invest their entire education budget on just one child, usually a son, hoping that this child will make it through secondary school, while shortchanging his siblings. Why? Many families are under the mistaken notion that the value of schooling comes from getting the local equivalent of a high school diploma and not from attending another semester. It would be a waste of resources to spread the family's educational budget among all the children rather than trying to make sure that one child reaches the brass ring. Yet the value of education, it turns out, is linear—each additional week brings additional value. Helping parents understand this, the book explains, has far more impact than building schools; it rapidly changes their educational choices."

This is where we witness a radical shift in focus. Instead of building schools and expecting people to send their children on their own, sensitizing them about the value of education is going to create a bottom-up solution, where the people in question seek what is being offered.

Banerjee and Duflo write in their book "talking about the problems of the world without talking about some accessible solutions is the way to paralysis rather than progress."

Thus, instead of imposing a grand solution to a humongous problem, starting at the grassroots and making small changes can add up to a pragmatic solution, which can become large enough in time to engulf the magnitude of the bigger problem. This approach is bottom-up instead of the usual top-down method. Moreover, it is practical and responsive to the minutest aspects of the issue. Thinking small can thus be extremely effective and the same approach, when applied in everyday life, can be extraordinarily rewarding.

For example, if you are having a hard time at work, instead of feeling ashamed at not rendering justice to your professional dream, you can think of what exactly was creating the difficulty at work. It could be a bunch of small problems such as inability to eat proper meals due to your work schedule making you physically drained or discomfort in handling technology, making coordination harder or just inhibition around colleagues. Instead of looking all the time at the bigger picture of your professional dream and how you're failing to achieve your monumental goal, you can make an honest soul-searching come up with possible remedial measures. If you're able to manage nutritious meals in your schedule, seek help and guidance with technology and work on your communication skills and build better camaraderie with your coworkers, it can make your workday easier and bring you closer to the larger goal of professional competence. The same can be applied to your personal relationships, your approach to health and well-being and numerous other domains.

Thinking 'small' is about pragmatism and paying attention to the most immediate, local and relevant things that might be outshined by the bigger aims but play an important role in the accomplishment of large missions.

The logic is in not forgetting the baby steps while being dazzled by the grandeur or scale of any dream or problem. With a judicious application of thinking 'small' while keeping your eye on the 'prize', you can make all the right transformations you seek to make and most importantly, a brilliant difference in the way in which you contribute to the world. That is the best way to hit the career bull's eye!

(The author is Founder & CEO Upsurge Global and Adjunct Professor and

Advisor EThames College)