"A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step" Proverb Meaning, Origin & History | PP
Channel: Poignant Proverbs
Date: 2021-09-03

0:00 - How to say “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
0:06 - Meaning of the proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
0:57 - Real life example of the proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
2:21 - Advice from the proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
3:08 - Famous advice related to the proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
3:25 - Origin of the proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
4:08 - Conclusion

Transcript:

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

This proverb means that even the biggest of undertakings or tasks starts from a seemingly unimportant or small action.

In other words, if there is a big project or goal that you want to achieve, you must start somewhere, no matter how insignificant that beginning may seem.

People often have ambitions for big things that they want to achieve, but become quickly overwhelmed by the prospect of taking on such a gargantuan task.

Simply thinking about doing something that might take months or years to achieve causes many people to give up immediately, not even try or put it off until tomorrow - a day which never comes.

A good example of this is learning a new language. Many people who grow up only speaking one language dream of being able to speak another; perhaps French, Spanish or Japanese.

If you’ve never heard the proverb, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” however, you think of the many years it will take to become fluent and give up without even starting.

Perhaps instead of looking at the many years of learning required, you download an app for learning languages and just start. Moments later, you’ve taken the first step and continue to take small steps each day.

Learning your new language through an app is slow going, but you’re making progress! One day, you find yourself in Quebec, France, Mexico, Spain or Japan and your learning accelerates exponentially, based upon the basic language foundation you built up through small steps each day.

Soon, you become fluent in your new language and your “journey of a thousand miles” is complete! You should take a moment to thank yourself for taking that first step.

In addition to taking that first step, you should decide to take steps each day, no matter how small. If you decide to learn a language by dedicating only ten minutes a day to it, you will find that you’ll make a surprising amount of progress, even though you didn’t attend classes which require a larger time commitment.

Progress toward your goals made by taking small steps each day is the topic of Jeff Olson’s book, “The Slight Edge”. Simply put, it’s easy to spend ten minutes a day doing something toward a goal and it’s also easy not to spend ten minutes; but you’ll only thank yourself if you do spend that ten minutes.

Brazilian novelist, Paulo Coelho once tweeted, “One day or day one. You decide.” which has become a catchy stand-in for our proverb and is encouragement to take that first step!

The origin of this poignant proverb lies with ancient Chinese philosopher and writer, Lao Tzu, who is also the reputed author of one of the Chinese classics, “Tao Te Ching”. Translating more directly from Chinese, our proverb would be, “A journey of a thousand li starts beneath one’s feet.”

It is up to you, then, to decide that you will start your thousand mile journey, no matter how long it takes and no matter how small your steps. The important thing is to start and to make even just a little progress every day.

So, the next time yourself or someone else has big ambitions but hasn’t even taken the first step, remind them that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Is it going to be “one day or day one?”

#poignantproverbs #proverbs #wisdom

References: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_journey_of_a_thousand_miles_begins_with_a_single_step

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi

https://quotecatalog.com/communicator/paulo-coelho

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/590652.The_Slight_Edge