Something was in my toe. Here’s what I learned.

So I had something bothering me. There were something in the bottom of my right toe. Numerous times I tried to dig it out and find out what it was. I could never find it. This went on for about 10 months. It was irritating enough that every time I took a step, I could feel the soreness deep inside my toe. It was sensitive enough that when I put any kind of pressure on the toe, it would hurt. It wasn’t disabling.  I could still function.  However, I kept thinking “this is getting really annoying”.

Finally one day I got really sick of it. I decided I would excavate until I either found what was in it, or I didn’t have a toe left.

After digging a crater out of my toe, I finally found the foreign object. It was hair splinter. This tiny sliver of hair was about a quarter inch long. Hairstylist get hair splinters often. But this one was kind of shocking.  As soon as I got the hair out, I put pressure on my foot and noticed that the pain was gone.  I was so thankful to finally find relief after all this time.

Upon reflecting on and analyzing this event, here’s what I learned.

1. Little things can fester: Big obstacles in life are easy to spot. However it’s the small things that can often go unchecked. The small things can end up making huge impacts in life.

2. You have to go to the core issue: On numerous occasions, I tried finding what was in my toe. The problem is, I never found the core or root issue. It wasn’t until I took the time and went through the pain of digging deep that I could find the actual problem and could adequately deal with it.

3. Give yourself time: Life gets busy. We rarely give ourselves time to dig deep, reflect, and change issues in our life.

Summary…  Little things make big impacts! What unchecked items are you carrying? Don’t let little splinters go unchecked and get you off track.