Has this ever happened to you? You have a project to start or a very big day ahead or a difficult meeting with your boss, a co-worker or a subordinate…and you just can’t muster the nerve to begin what you can’t fail? You see, I’m not talking about the challenges that we encounter multiple times in the course of the day. I mean those projects and interactions that cannot fail. That you must do right. Those decisions that determine the course of your season, career, your very future.

Martin Luther King Jr. said, “You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

To follow up and paraphrase General Frank Merrill, you just have to take the next step. We often do not see the the end result when we begin. There are positive ways to imagine and purpose and “see” your successful accomplishment but there is no substitute for taking the first step and then the next step. You can’t cut the whole forest down in one stroke but one tree at a time. OK, enough of the analogies.

Keep this in mind when the next existential challenge to your career comes along. Make your plan and “take the first step.” Have a great day even as you go out to Make it a Great Day!