Have you ever seen that Bill Murray movie, What About Bob? Baby steps were his method to success. Baby steps to the door,
baby
steps
to the elevator…
It’s humorous, yes. But it is also how I live too.
For some, goal setting comes natural. Yet for me, it is not fun at all. As I examined my distaste for the ritual, I discovered it is rooted in my lack of confidence in myself. I expect failure and therefore do not expect anything of myself.
If I don’t care about anything I will not be disappointed.
A friend of mine who is new to yoga has been sharing with me her joy in little improvements she is seeing in her practice. I love that about yoga. It starts you where you are, accommodating you in the way you need and then welcomes you to move a little deeper. Soon you find yourself doing things you didn’t think you could. And you take baby steps to success.
Every newfound mental connection to a pose is confidence to pursue more.
So is life. So, maybe I need to break my goals down. When I was younger, my father used to say, “Bethany how do you eat an elephant?” And I always knew the answer.
What is a personal goal you’ve set for yourself? How can you break it down into achievable pieces?
Sometimes I act on the philosophy that if I set the bar of expectations low, then I don’t have to worry about failing at that goal. I like the idea, though, of thinking of the goal more like stairs; we just need to take it one step at a time.
One goal I have off the top of my head is to keep blogging. If I think about it long-term, I get overwhelmed. I don’t think I have that many inspiring things to say. =) But if I just take it one day at a time, it seems more manageable.
I need to do the same thing with my goal of getting fit this year. Maybe I should try Christian yoga. It sounds interesting… I’ll definitely explore around your blog some more. =)
Love the reference to What About Bob?
I have to say that I am a planner at heart. But goal without a plan is just a wish. I know that I need to put in on paper (or my iCal), and break it down to action steps the moment I say I’m going to do it. For example, we just finished organizing a state-wide youth conference. I had to take each team’s responsibilities and break them down in to weekly bite-sized steps. We started in October and saw huge success just this last Saturday!
Great post!
That’s an excelent point, Noah. And probably gets to the heart of the matter. When you can see the steps and plan on paper then it makes it seem less intimidating. Thanks for sharing!