Hey. How you?
Yesterday, I blogged about Berkeley, my Bichon, discovering that with a few tugs and pulls, he could wiggle his way up and over into the toy basket to fetch out his squeaky toy lobster.
Not exactly. I blogged about the point of that story: taking one step at a time breaks the paralysis of not knowing where to begin.
Today’s post: Take another baby step.
Yup.
That simple.
Why?
Because you need to develop a practice of taking one baby step after another in order to break through that overwhelmed feeling that will try to hault your progress.
I know I know. You’re on a roll. You took a step yesterday and that made it simpler to take several more. You woke up rarin’ to go today and you’re rockin and rollin’ and checking off that to do list and don’t need to read again about how to take another baby step.
Okay. So any of you that nodded to the above, you’re free to go. See you tomorrow at my next post. But hurry up and leave cuz the rest of us are gonna learn something more.
Okay. They’re gone. Ready? Here we go:
That initial high from breaking through the mental block IS HUGE! and if you had a breakthrough when you took a small step, bravo!!!
But in moving forward, in evolving this ‘doing small steps’ as a regular daily life practice, the key is gonna be how you prepare yourself mentally each and every day and throughout the day: how you continue to self defend.
I described a bit about self defending yesterday–-but for any first time readers, self defending is all about pausing, getting still, attributing the whole reason for your day to the Mind that is expressing every ounce of your individuality, and getting very clear of this source and its operation in your life each and every moment.
So too today then, as you are moving forward, pause, self defend. Defend: –that your moments right now are controlled and governed and outlined by universal intelligence–the one Mind;
–and that you are receptive and aware and listening and able to hear all that you need to;
–that there are an abundant array of thoughts and ideas at hand, that you are not stuck for a moment in any sense of indecision or unclarity;
–that whatever you need to know you can and you will.
I love thinking about this ongoing current of Mind control’s of the day like the way the oceans’ currents move in a constant perpetual motion. The intelligence governing all things is governing all of our thinking. And because of this, you have access each and every moment to the simplest ideas to the most complex ideas–whichever you may need when you need them.
So back to moving forward and taking more ‘baby steps’ in the direction you wish to head: whatever you worked on yesterday you may want to try continuing today. Or you may want to take steps toward another biggie that’s been looming in thought.
Yesterday, my small step was simple: I opened up my calendar application on my macbook and a plan for blogpost themes I want to write about each week. And then I laughed. Seriously. Out loud. Why? Because, something as SIMPLE as giving myself this bit of structure healed what had felt like a huge deadweight of indecision over where to start.
No joke. I’d felt really kinda queasy and somewhat nauteous every time I’d realized I had zero gameplan for the direction my blog was going over the next few months. I mean I had loads of ideas but no real sense of of process.
So I applied what I talked about yesterday: I calming down and began to self defend. I got into my thoughts–and ick, they were a massive mess. I rooted out all the condemning thoughts that mucked up my thinking–in no real order take a look if any of these sound familiar:
“you stupid idiot, you can’t decide”
“bitten off more than you can chew again eh”
“loser woman. there ya go again. no game plan. no plan. you suck.”
“who the hell are you to think you have anything worth writing about?”
eh hem. Any of those sound familiar to anybody?
See I’ve ahd so much practice self defending I know clearly what is muckety balogney and what ideas are of substance and worth savoring.
Any thought belittling, condemning or putting you down in any way is just erroneous, a big fat liar. I often call ’em ‘blue meanies’ (from the Beatles’ movie Yellow Submarine–a must to go watch if you haven’t–“Blue Meanies” are the bad guys who try to exert despotic control over all. For a quick peak at the Blue Meanies, start the youtube below at 4:14 to see a bit of the attempted squelching of the Blue Meanies. And take note of the song used to squelch them! :).
None of those condemning attacks ever have an ounce of truth. So, after I rooted all those out for their nonsense, I got still and figured out some small steps I could take to feel a sense of progress about my blogging plan. And so I considered some trends and themes that interest me a great deal and make sense to write about.
And that was my ‘small step’ for yesterday.
Today I’ll take another. I need to break those down the themes into actual topics and figure out when to write about each. Simple. Doable. Right? 🙂
Guess what else? Tonight, Berkeley had zero problem scootchin the toys basket over, stretching his head in and grabbing his lobster. With the small steps and perservering he’d taken on up to this point, and last night’s victory, now grabbing that toy is a done deal to him!
So what small step did you take yesterday? And what’s your next step gonna be?
Have fun and come back and share 🙂
Andy 🙂 Thank you for the nugget of truth you're sharing..the practical step by step. Couple thoughts to add: Did you blog this very idea on your blog? DO! It's such a great comment it ought to be a blog…Then: idea…just b/c I am reading commenting on several blogs a day…you can always give a link to the post….that way as you comment..you can leave links to not just your site, but your post. You may find that is simpler than 'blogging' a response 🙂 But as I write that I'm giggling. If you scan my comments across the blogosphere, they're the length of posts 🙂 and often an engaging meaningful discussion ensues. Your ideas are helpful and meaningful and you've predicted in a way the next steps of what I”ll be offering here. What I value about finding people's blogs is how many of us are saying similar things..and you just wanna hold hands and ponder how we can better collaborate..ya know? Again thank you. Enjoy the journey. 🙂
Hey again Tre!
Thanks for your feedback. Partly because of what I do for a living, I was inspired by your recent post to offer a few suggestions for those readers taking those first steps (a.k.a., achieving meaningful goals). I hope the following is helpful for everyone:
1. Make your goals measurable. Specific. For example, I want to create a successful blog in ‘09 isn’t specific enough. The goal needs a number (e.g., the number used depends on the goal, but in essence would be a time, distance, frequency, date, number of subscribers, etc.). Writing down I will write “x” number of posts/week is measurable.
2. Make sure your goals are desirable. This seems obvious enough, but it isn’t enough to simply ‘want’ to accomplish a goal. It must be a burning desire. It is the fuel that enables you to overcome any barriers that inevitably pop up–particularly if it’s a big goal. Know ‘WHY’ you’re going after the goal you’ve set up. The bigger the goal, the bigger the ‘why.’ Think of the ‘why’ as fuel–it ties into your purpose.
3. The goal has to be “I” centered. This also seems obvious, but too often, we think we’re engaging in a goal that is ours, when in reality, it’s for reasons other then our own.
4. Is your goal action oriented? What that means is the goal you choose to focus on must include specific behaviors–actions–that you will do to achieve your goal. It’s not enough to ‘know’ what you need to do; it has to be written down. In other words, is your goal observable? If for example, you said you wanted to go to the gym and workout regularly, could someone walking by the window at the gym see you working on your goal and videotape it?
5. Lastly, you goals have to be realistic. This is where most people skid off the road. They have great, inspiring goals, but they end up not being realistic. One of the ways to be sure your goals are realistic is to follow the steps outlined in this series of articles on achieving goals and success. Additionally, it’s also important to take a really, really good look at your goals and step back and ask “can I really accomplish this? How do I know?” How do you know? Have you accomplished something similar before–do you have a history of achieving similar goals? Do you need to learn something before you can work on the main part of the goal?
The more specific you can be, the higher the probability you will achieve your goals and achieve success. Don’t forget to create balance in your life. Take care of your health (without which, you won’t likely be accomplishing to many goals), pay attention to your family, friends, etc. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun! Just because achieving your goals take time and energy doesn’t mean achieving goals can’t be fun. The more fun you build into accomplishing your goals, the more energy and joy you’ll experience in the process (and the less stressed you’ll be).
Again, I hope this is helpful.
Take good care….
Andy
http://livewellbydesign.org
Andy 🙂 Thank you for the nugget of truth you're sharing..the practical step by step. Couple thoughts to add: Did you blog this very idea on your blog? DO! It's such a great comment it ought to be a blog…Then: idea…just b/c I am reading commenting on several blogs a day…you can always give a link to the post….that way as you comment..you can leave links to not just your site, but your post. You may find that is simpler than 'blogging' a response 🙂 But as I write that I'm giggling. If you scan my comments across the blogosphere, they're the length of posts 🙂 and often an engaging meaningful discussion ensues. Your ideas are helpful and meaningful and you've predicted in a way the next steps of what I”ll be offering here. What I value about finding people's blogs is how many of us are saying similar things..and you just wanna hold hands and ponder how we can better collaborate..ya know? Again thank you. Enjoy the journey. 🙂
Hey again Tre!
Thanks for your feedback. Partly because of what I do for a living, I was inspired by your recent post to offer a few suggestions for those readers taking those first steps (a.k.a., achieving meaningful goals). I hope the following is helpful for everyone:
1. Make your goals measurable. Specific. For example, I want to create a successful blog in ‘09 isn’t specific enough. The goal needs a number (e.g., the number used depends on the goal, but in essence would be a time, distance, frequency, date, number of subscribers, etc.). Writing down I will write “x” number of posts/week is measurable.
2. Make sure your goals are desirable. This seems obvious enough, but it isn’t enough to simply ‘want’ to accomplish a goal. It must be a burning desire. It is the fuel that enables you to overcome any barriers that inevitably pop up–particularly if it’s a big goal. Know ‘WHY’ you’re going after the goal you’ve set up. The bigger the goal, the bigger the ‘why.’ Think of the ‘why’ as fuel–it ties into your purpose.
3. The goal has to be “I” centered. This also seems obvious, but too often, we think we’re engaging in a goal that is ours, when in reality, it’s for reasons other then our own.
4. Is your goal action oriented? What that means is the goal you choose to focus on must include specific behaviors–actions–that you will do to achieve your goal. It’s not enough to ‘know’ what you need to do; it has to be written down. In other words, is your goal observable? If for example, you said you wanted to go to the gym and workout regularly, could someone walking by the window at the gym see you working on your goal and videotape it?
5. Lastly, you goals have to be realistic. This is where most people skid off the road. They have great, inspiring goals, but they end up not being realistic. One of the ways to be sure your goals are realistic is to follow the steps outlined in this series of articles on achieving goals and success. Additionally, it’s also important to take a really, really good look at your goals and step back and ask “can I really accomplish this? How do I know?” How do you know? Have you accomplished something similar before–do you have a history of achieving similar goals? Do you need to learn something before you can work on the main part of the goal?
The more specific you can be, the higher the probability you will achieve your goals and achieve success. Don’t forget to create balance in your life. Take care of your health (without which, you won’t likely be accomplishing to many goals), pay attention to your family, friends, etc. Oh, and don’t forget to have fun! Just because achieving your goals take time and energy doesn’t mean achieving goals can’t be fun. The more fun you build into accomplishing your goals, the more energy and joy you’ll experience in the process (and the less stressed you’ll be).
Again, I hope this is helpful.
Take good care….
Andy
http://livewellbydesign.org
Andy, welcome and thank you for stumbling on over. Your perspective is so valued and appreciated. I especially nod right with you on the 'realistic' part as I always want to peak Mt. Everest…ya know…TOMORROW. 😉 Come back, share, ask, vent, discuss, and link back to your writings. Hope to hear from you again soon. Be well.
Tre–
I just stumbled upon your blog. What a wonderful piece of work you have done with this site….
Small steps ARE good. Small, measurable, realistic, “I” centered, desirable, and action oriented are guaranteed to bring you towards your destination!
Take good care and continued success to you.
hey yok! thanks for commenting and thank goodness you were kidding.
seriously, what steps are you taking of late…any redirecting, regrouping or just steadying on? yeah, berk is a treasure. do you have any pets?
Hey Tre,
One step is one more than you had taken yesterday.. wish I had a Berk of my own
I started taking steps then I slipped on ice 🙂
Just kidding, let's continue in our journey !