little things

The Little Things by Andy Andrews [Book Review]

The Little Things, the newest book by Andy Andrews is…A tough pill to swallow.

Let me put the disclaimer out there, I really enjoyed the book. If you have ever read any of Andy’s previous books you’ll know what to expect. A fun ride, great historical examples that nail the point home and some fantastic messages on how to live a great life. So far so good right?

So why is this a tough pill to swallow?

Simply put, the big message of the book goes against everything we have been programmed to think and do.

What do I mean by that? Andy’s argument throughout the short 160 page book is that we need to pay attention to the ‘little things’ in our lives because they matter. They start to add up and can become huge agents of change in our businesses and our personal growth.

However it’s a tough pill to swallow because we’ve been taught for so long, don’t worry about small picture thinking, think about the BIG PICTURE. Think about the big things that matter in life and don’t sweat the small stuff.

The first chapter really framed the rest of the book when it discussed the difference between 1st and 2nd place winners in the Olympics. Some of these athletes end up winning by a nose hair fraction and how did they do it? By paying attention to the little things. That extra push up, extra lap, extra bit of training that helped them when it really mattered.

Or another chapter where Andy discussed how we need to challenge how things have always been done. When we follow crowds, we don’t stick out. We begin to become…Average. These messages really hit home for me and made me think about how a lot of us (myself included) have settled for our current situations.

little things

And of course there was some fantastic historical examples as well sprinkled in the book which helped drive home Andy’s point about paying attention to the little things. I really appreciated that and it helped me understand how the little things are truly part of…Ironically…Big picture thinking.

A tough pill to swallow because it CHALLENGED US. It showed us that we need to change and the right way to do it. A fantastic short book that you will get a lot of great nuggets from!

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