Welcome and thanks for joining me in the new year.  Today’s episode is short and it’s the first in my new series, Small Steps to Big Impact. You can find the show notes at masterfullibrarian.com/ep-5.

At this time of year, most of us are thinking about New Year’s resolutions and new goals for the coming year.  But according to popular literature, and a study done by Scranton University researchers in the late 1980’s, at least 80% of those resolutions fail.  

If you’re like most dedicated librarians, you’ve got clear goals for achieving more impact with your library’s services and programs. But what can you do to keep your goals from becoming a sad statistic?

Take one small step.

What trips most of us up and sets us up for failure is looking at the whole process and then becoming overwhelmed by how much there is to do. For some of us, that keeps us from even getting started. 

In his masterful book titled One Small Step Can Change Your Life:  The Kaizen Way, Robert Maurer shares the ancient Japanese concept of kaizen, which is using small steps to achieve large goals. 

According to Maurer, this approach is conveyed in the ancient text the Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu when he states “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. 

And it’s a remarkably effective technique.  It’s easy and non-threatening and leads actually to continuous improvement.  It’s been used in Japan and around the world for decades, both by corporations and by individuals to effective achieve both major and minor goals.

For complete show notes and resources, go to masterfullibrarian.com/ep-5