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. - Helen Keller

This is a profound statement from a woman who couldn’t see or hear. Just how did she intend to accomplish anything at all, let alone “a great and noble task?”

What gumption! What fortitude! What courage!

Any task she, in spite of her limitations, managed to accomplish was great and noble, because she overcame every obstacle that life placed before her. Are we as capable as Helen Keller was? Can we at least accomplish tasks on the same level as her?

Life doesn’t expect all of us to be great or noble. All it asks of us, and what we should certainly ask of ourselves, is that we honestly, truly, completely do the very best we possibly can at all times, in everything we do. Then even the small tasks we manage to accomplish will be great and noble in their own way.

I think that the sum of many small tasks far out way the sum of one great task. It is the power that you receive from the small victories that will truly make you and your life successful.

Don’t try to just focus on the one great task and in the process lose sight of all the small and meaningful little tasks that truly make us who we are.