Cliff's Blog
A feel-good morning microblog of 10-second takeaways offering advice, insights, and inspiration to brighten your outlook and give you a lift.
Go Small Or Go Home
If you’re having trouble getting started, you’re probably starting too big.
Take a page from reporters and novelists. When telling a story, they usually start with tiny details: the doorway of a building, the button of a jacket, a word, a name, an action. Big themes have no place at the beginning.
It’s the same with resumes. When faced with a pile of notes, I start with crafting a single bullet point, one achievement out of many, then I work backward from the inside out, from the bottom up, bullet by bullet, job by job, ending with the grand introduction, the client’s favorite part: a 2-line opening statement summarizing the entirety of the person’s life and career. A sunflower grown from a seed.
I rarely get to that 2-liner without first toiling over some tiny bullets.
And such is everything, isn’t it? Bricks to a castle, glances to a relationship, flowers to a garden.
Start small, have faith, and build something beautiful.
