Incremental Improvement

My Mom told me a story about a prank she pulled on my father that describes the value of an incremental improvement. I have to confess it involves unsafe child labor, but it was the 1960s, so she gets a pass. Also, it was my brothers, so if they got hurt, that's ok.
My Dad was roofing the house. It was two stories tall, and he had to carry the bails of shingles up a ladder over his shoulder. They were heavy for even a grown man, and it was taking days and days of after-work effort to get the shingles up on top.
One day he came home to find several bails of shingles had been delivered to the roof while he was at work. But, unfortunately, my mother would not reveal how she had accomplished the task.
Instead, she told me she took the band that held the bails together off and had my brothers, who were little boys carry the shingles up the ladder one or two at a time. Then, she put the bails back together at the top and slid the band back on just like new.
Often in our lives, we have a task to complete that can not be done all at once. By setting smaller goals, we can break down the most enormous tasks into smaller pieces. By consistently applying incremental improvements or tasks, we can find that we have completed what would seem impossible.