Do small things right

When I was a kid, I watched the movie Ghost Dog dozens of time. I was always fascinated by ancient cultures, like the Samurai. Forest Whitaker played a modern-day assassin that lived by the rules of the Samurai and often cites from the book Hagakure.

Even if I was a kid at that time (and probably shouldn‘t have seen that movie) one quote I still remember by heart, as it influenced me a lot.

„Matters of great concern should be treated lightly.” Master Ittei commented, “Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.“ — Tsunetomo Yamamoto

Since then, when I have to take big decisions, I think about this quote. It doesn‘t help if you push big decisions away from you and one point you have to take them.

There are numerous ways to interpret this quote. It's better to take a decision now and maybe adjust along the way, than to overthink the decision and take it too late. But enough on the great concerns.

The second part is regularly overlooked: Matters of small concern should be treated seriously.

How do you take care of the small things? Do you give them enough attention? Like something direct reports needs from you, do you reply in time? Or is that not relevant enough? Do you let small decisions pile up until they become big problems?

These are the matters of small concern that you should treat seriously.

Life is made up of small moments and small concerns. Not only of one or two big decisions. Finally, it's the dozens of small habits that create your life, good or bad.