"You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you've climbed a mountain.” (Tom Hiddleston)

* Update, I completed the 100 Happy Days challenge on Friday, 7th June 2014. 100 days, 100 photos to capture the little things that made each day worthwhile. I've decided to continue taking photos of the things that make me happy, with my own hash tag - ##anotherhappypearl

Knit each step, but look at the pattern

When you're knitting a project, you have to knit each stitch, but as I knit more, I begin to realise that with Mindfulness, whilst you need to knit each stitch, you also have to move on to the next one, and every now and again step back and look at the whole to see if the pattern looks right.

In time, you learn to read the pattern, no matter how complicated, and ask yourself, “Does this look right to you?”

But you don't count every stitch, or you'd lose your motivation, you take each one as it comes.

This year, I signed up to the 100 Happy Days Challenge, a challenge to find something to photograph something makes me happy every day for 100 days. I am on Day 52 – past the halfway mark and reaching Day 50 feels like a milestone. I have become used to taking a photo every day, one step at a time.

My friend Caroline is at the final stages of sewing together around 120 squares that she crocheted over a few years to make a blanket for her bed. I remember when she started, and how I admire her perseverance. If she had focussed on the number she needed to do, instead of crocheting each one, one at a time, she might never have finished.

The same goes at work, when you're having a busy day and there's lots going on, it's easy to get lost in the “busy work”, when really it's the significant few that make the difference. (Stephen Covey, "First Things First")

I'm learning to do this at work. When I work on a task, to go ahead with the task and then to pause and look at the pattern; to find the pattern and check what is out of place, rather than focussing on each individual step and getting lost in the small.

And to focus on the finishing touches, as a way of reminding myself when I have achieved it, e.g. every morning when I put my ear-rings in, they're the finishing touch to my outfit. Then slipping my feet into my shoes and opening the curtains to let the daylight in just before I leave the house. 

This is the finishing touch that tells me I'm ready to leave the house and start my day.

What’s the point that triggers the next step and lets you move forward and climb your mountain? 

Purlgirl xx