How to Eat an Elephant . . .

Adding . . . Subtracting . . . Multiplying . . . Dividing . . . Algebra . . . Trigonometry . . . Calculus . . . These are very scary words for most people but as I looked down into those enormous blue eyes that were staring up at me and brimming with tears I knew that this little 8 year old angel was overwhelmed and petrified.  Abby has reached a point in her education that I remember all too well.  She has finally reached math.  Not adding or subtracting, not counting or something simple, no she has reached multiplication and division!  It is so easy to think that this is a simple task but I remember just how daunting that this had seemed to me when I was her age.  Abby is a very precocious little girl.  Her ability to learn often leaves me in awe, so for her to get to this stage of unhappiness not only upset me . . . it caused me to go into my no-nonsense, problem-solving, rough-as-a-cob, "Super Dad" mode.  This was not what my tender hearted little girl was expecting or needed.  I think she was wanting to just cry it out and I was supposed to rub her back and tell her that it was going to be alright . . . well all I can say is that nobody told me!  Once again my wife comes in and soothes the hurt feelings and in a very diplomatic way "educates" me on how to handle little girls.  Of course then she has to cheer me up because now MY feelings are tender because I had no intention of being such a thoughtless brute to such a sweet little princess . . . but then FINALLY Abby and I sat down and I taught her how to eat an elephant.

Now mind you eating an elephant is not as uncommon as you may think.  I seem to be constantly chewing on one.  In fact, finding the elephants to eat is the easiest part of the job.  With that said . . . Abby has an elephant and her elephant is Multiplication.  I explained to her that although she thought that memorizing her tables was just too BIG and too MUCH that she really almost had it beat.  I explained to her that there were only 13 sets and that she had already mastered the zeros, ones, fives, tens, and elevens.  That only left her with 8 for her to learn.  I then told her that even with those eight she already had 5 of the 12 facts mastered by knowing these other tables.  It was about this time I saw her eyes light up!  Some people call this an epiphany.  Some call it an "aha" moment.  But by whatever name you want to call it, I saw that she had found a foothold on her elephant and she was ready to dig in!!  I then explained about the elephant.

Abby and I spoke about how sometimes when you become overwhelmed you just need to take a step back and break it down into smaller chunks.  You then need to assess how much you already know and then you just need to dig in!  Eat a bite . . . Master it and then eat some more.  I then told her that no matter what she faced that if she would do this she would ultimately succeed.

You see I know people who give up or never try because it's too BIG and/or too MUCH.  They become overwhelmed by the task so they make excuses on why they can't or shouldn't even attempt it.  Some people see the task and then just talk about it.  They never attempt it but they continuously talk about it in the hopes that by talking about it that it will become done . . . all . . . by . . . itself.  I don't think that they choose to do this because they are lazy (although some are) but I tend to believe that they don't realize that to accomplish something you have to break it down into bite size chunks and then take that first step and commit.  Take a bite and chew!  It doesn't matter so much which part you start with . . . just start!  Every time I read the story about David and Goliath I realize two things.  In order to be successful you must first SHOW UP and then secondly you must THROW THE ROCK!! 

I left Abby in my office as she was furiously writing her twos table on the dry erase board.  She's in the process of eating her first elephant and I just pray that she will always stay hungry.  Here in my house we are Hell on elephants!

The First Bite!!