Just as the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, the journey towards the simple life begins by taking some step to simplify your current life. How people deal with this fact does much to determine whether or not they will complete the journey successfully.
Some will never complete the journey because they will never take the first step. The steps that are within their ability to take don’t seem to get them all that much closer to the goal, and the steps they can see will get them closer are out of their reach.
Some will never complete the journey because they refuse to acknowledge that the step they are about to take is actually out of their reach. They decide never to buy or use prepared food again without acknowledging that they don’t know how to prepare their own food, much less to enjoy preparing it. They move to the country without acknowledging that they don’t know how to occupy themselves except with urban amusements. They start a garden without acknowledging that they don’t like dirt and bugs and summer heat and the taste of vegetables. They buy rural acreage, and are frustrated and dismayed to find that their farming neighbors aren’t as meticulous about appearances as were their nice, neat suburban neighbors.
Some will never complete the journey because they recognize that the necessary steps are beyond them, but they aren’t willing to do what it takes to put those steps within their reach. It’s easier to avoid cooking or eating vegetables or working in the heat and dirt than it is to learn and enjoy those things.
Some will never complete the journey because they tried taking a step and stumbled, and don’t care to risk stumbling again—too embarrassing, too painful, too disappointing.
Others will make good progress on the journey because they deliberately avoid these pitfalls. They look around first for the simplest and easiest steps, knowing that even small progress is progress, that taking a step puts other steps within your reach, that even easy successes will build your confidence and focus your attention on the work at hand. They don’t take large, risky steps unless there are no other smaller, safer steps that can be taken first. When the large, risky steps need to be taken, they do everything they can to prepare themselves for success, even if it means learning to forego old pleasures and learning to take pleasure in old dislikes. They will learn from their failures and use them to guide them in choosing further steps.
I describe in this post how Joel Salatin encourages people to stop dreaming about the big things that could happen “if only …”, and get on with the small things that can be done right now to prepare you for the big things someday. Salatin also gripes on occasion about people who have taken the big step of buying a farm and starting to work it, only to deliberately doom themselves by filling their trash cans with frozen pizza boxes and soda cans, and by driving into town every other evening. It is not ignorance that leads them to fail, it is willful defiance of reality.
When people are faced with any large and daunting project, often to the point of paralysis, I encourage them to take Elisabeth Elliott’s advice and “do the next thing.” There is almost always a next thing, and it is usually manageable. Doing it will get you off the dime, it will get you a bit closer to the goal, it will put other next things within your reach, and it will make you a bit wiser about how to reach your goal.
And, most important, taking a step often has benefits that can be enjoyed immediately as well as advancing the journey. If you eliminate an unnecessary distraction, or focus a bit more of your attention on God or your community or your family, or learn how to do something for yourself, or start eating healthier food, or develop a humbler attitude—those things are good all by themselves.
