Recently, I was thinking about small steps. Often, when we think about a big change or significant transformation, it can be really overwhelming. We can forget that how we make the big change happen, requires as much energy and focus as working out what the end goal is.
When did we forget about taking small steps to make a big change?
We all start with small steps, with the very basics of being very young: small steps to walk, literally. Small steps to learn in education, in training, in building relationships, in developing our personalities, in gaining qualifications, in gaining work experience, in developing the capacity for emotional and mental maturity. It all takes small steps. Sometimes, we might not even be aware each moment is a step, but we can see patterns of how we have improved over time – we were able to do the big things sometimes, because of all the small things that we experienced prior.
When we think about taking small steps, and breaking a big challenge, big goal or big transition into the steps that we need to take to achieve it, does it become a little less overwhelming? Can it become a little less overwhelming? And a little more focused.
Could it be a way to reframe what we want to achieve to how we want to achieve it. Is that where the energy and focus needs to go? In the how.
If we know why we need to do something, and why we need it to happen, once we know what the end goal is, the next step is achieving the goal.
Many times the thinking then goes from realising you don’t have the goal to immediately needing the goal and that can be totally overwhelming, simply because big changes are not simple. They take time. And that time is not time for time’s sake, it is the time when you take the small steps, make the incremental tweaks, reach the less visible but just as significant milestones.
So how do we think about breaking things down, taking things slower and stop overwhelming ourselves so we can start enabling ourselves with energy and focus to do the smaller things that will add up to the big thing.
Do you have a big thing weighing on your mind?
And can you break that big thing into 3, 4, 5,10 small steps? Can you list those small steps that you can do from now to get you on your way to the big impact you want to see in your life?