“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”
This quote is by Helen Keller, a woman who when she was 19 months old had an illness that resulted in her becoming both blind and deaf. With the assistance and companionship of her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Helen learned to read, write, and speak. She eventually became a famous author, speaker, and philanthropist who positively affected the lives of many people.
Helen Keller’s words are a reminder that many of the things we do have significance. It might be that our life path includes working toward a “great and noble task.” If that’s the case, it’s essential that we put forth the effort and do our best to follow our inner guidance as we take the steps required for that.
It is often the case, however, that our lives are made up of doing what might be termed “small tasks.” Small tasks as well as large tasks require us to make it a priority to try to discern what our inner voice wants us to do and then to do our best to follow the direction we’ve been given. Making the effort of discernment is itself a noble task.
When I think of small tasks, I think of many of those things we do daily: showing our spouses or partners, our children, and other loved ones that we care about them through our actions and our words; acting with integrity; being generous with our time; and helping others. I think of being responsible, including doing quality work at our jobs. There are times when we need to be patient, times when we need to be assertive, times when we need to have courage, and times when we need to do creative problem solving. These and many other ways of being are certainly “small tasks” that are “great and noble.”