Taking Baby Steps - How to get things done.

This weekend I was on a scrapbooking trip with my girl friends.  We always have so much fun working on our scrapbooks, eating and talking.  As I sat at my table looking at the piles of paper, photos and scrapbooking supplies that were laid out in front of me, I began to feel overwhelmed.  I could spend hours thinking about what I wanted to do with all of it.  I needed to start working. Working on my daughter’s wedding scrapbook, but there were so many beautiful photos and I didn’t want to ruin any of them.  The thought of getting started gave me a little anxiety and kept me frozen in inactivity.  Then I thought of a book I love called, “ The Slight Edge”.  It is a book about the concept of just taking little baby steps towards a goal.  Taking one small action at a time each day will eventually get a large task accomplished.  I began to work.

There are so many things that we want to do in our lives and we continually put them off because they seem so large.  We want to make more money, go on a fancy vacation, or learn a new skill.  We keep saying we want to do it, but the goal never materializes because we are caught in an inactivity/fear loop. 

If we spend too much time thinking about what we want to get done, we will idle and never accomplish anything.  If we wait for the perfect idea, the perfect job offer, the perfect deal for our vacation, we will never move.  Our brains get in the way of our goals.  Our brain brings up all the negative things that we think might happen if we step out of our comfort zone.   The negativity scares us into inaction.

I see this idle tendency so often with my clients.  I ask a client to brush their pets’ teeth.  They say, “there is no way doctor, he will never let me brush his teeth!”  I talk to them about the power of the “baby step” or “slight edge”.  Get the toothbrush, show it to the dog then give him a treat.   The next day place the toothbrush gently on one tooth, then stop and give him a treat.  The next day swipe at one tooth, then give him a treat.  You get the idea.  One tooth at a time keeping it positive until that dog loves getting his teeth brushed.  The goal is accomplished!  It becomes easy when you break it down into baby steps. 

How do you take baby steps and get this concept to work for you?

Focus on one project at a time and take one small step at a time.  Break the goal down into little bite sized chunks and write them down.  Make a list of baby steps.  Take each step until you get that project finished before switching to another.  Don’t multitask.  Your brain cannot do more than one thing at a time and if you allow yourself small chunks to focus on you are more likely to continue to move forward.  

Have no fear.  Nothing you want to do in life is out of your reach.  You want to learn to dance?  Take one dance lesson at a time.   You want to write a book, one page at a time.  You are perfectly capable of doing more than you think you can do.  Push through the fear and take a step.

One baby step.

Dr. Julie Cappel