““A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step””

— Chinese proverb

Sick. Sick. Sick. Sick.

That’s what the emails said tonight. Four people said they couldn’t attend our Toastmasters meeting, including one of our speakers. As a volunteer President of the club, I was a bit discouraged.

To make matters worse, when I showed up to the library, our room was locked. Our club had been taken off their schedule. More discouragement.

Discouragement or not, I took things one step at a time. And little by little, things came around.

A librarian helped me get into our room. Members and visitors started arriving. One person volunteered to speak. Several guests came. The meeting started. Roles were assigned. Speeches given. Evaluations made. Comments. Dialog. Humor. Fun.

By the end of the evening, everyone was smiling and laughing. And, we had signed up one new member and another committed to join next meeting.

Not a bad ending to a disappointing start.

Any good financial planner will tell you the same thing. Small, consistent investments in the stock market will lead to large returns over a long period of time. But in the short term, you’re going to have disappointments.

Any good programmer will tell you can’t write an entire computer program in one fell swoop. You have to write it one line at a time.

Any good runner doesn’t start training by running the marathon.

They all start by taking a few small steps.

Rode the ups and downs of being the volunteer Feedbackers Toastmasters President.