Disclosure: I only recommend products/services I would use myself and feel might benefit you as well. This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Baby steps…. The naming of baby steps makes us feel like we’re making progress but inconsequential progress towards whatever feat we’re trying to tackle. Baby steps sounds small, meek, and monotonous.
But what if instead, we thought of them as something more grand, consequential, and rewarding. What if we thought of them as “inspired, small but mighty, momentum-gaining steps”. Okay… doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as well as baby steps, but you get the idea. For the rest of the article, I’ll simply call them “inspired steps.”
I recently explained what I characterized as a “baby step” in my business to my coach, Rasa DiSalvo. This prompted her to remind me that “baby steps” add up over time, and we looked back at how all the inspired steps had added up since January. My mind was immediately blown. I then realized that what I was calling a “baby step” now would’ve been huge to me earlier in the year.
Inspired steps truly are like compounding interest if you look at them from a growth mindset.
The first step is the hardest
As cliché or as simple as it may sound, the hardest part is always to start. That sounds counterintuitive, but it’s often true. While the start is many times the simplest, lowest risk step to take in the journey that you’re embarking on, it’s often the hardest step to take.
Sticking with our compounding interest analogy, it’s easy to put off saving money and vow to start setting it aside the following week. One more dinner out, one more week of Starbucks coffee, and soon the weeks have added up. As simple as it may sound to put something like $20 a week into a savings account, we don’t do it because it feels small and inconsequential until it isn’t. Jeff Olson breaks this down further in a book I’m currently working through called The Slight Edge (links to hardcover and Audible).
The same concept is true for taking the first steps towards something you want to accomplish, whether it’s related to your business, your health, your career, your relationships, or so much more. Starting is often difficult because it doesn’t feel like the start is going to do very much for us. So we keep prioritizing other tasks over this start because those feel more consequential and necessary, and while some of these may in fact be necessary, our small first step ultimately does end up being consequential even though we don’t see meaningful results right away.
We get so far ahead of ourselves thinking about alllll the steps that may come up after the first step that we get overwhelmed by the potential outcomes. This overwhelm can come from a variety of sources such as fear of success, hyper-achiever tendencies, or thinking that we need to do all the things at once.
It just takes one inspired step a week to start making consistent progress. That doesn’t sound so bad, right?
And the fact of the matter is that, once you start, you’ve started your journey down a curvy path. As much as you may be laser focused on some linear course of action, you’re going to learn and grow along the way. You may feel that a different structure works best for you, maybe you try out a new passion, or maybe your preferences change as you work through self-exploration.
The thing is: You don’t really know what you love until you get yourself in the game.
Inspired steps build momentum
Once you start, you have momentum! You’ve started your journey in motion by taking that first step.
Going back to our compounding interest analogy, you realized after your first week of putting that $20 to the side in a savings account that it really only took a few minutes of your time (or no time at all with current technology) and that your lifestyle was generally pretty much unaffected. Saving $20 again the next week feels easy and painless, and you’ve now put yourself in the habit of saving.
The same goes for your new journey! Once you take that first inspired step, you realize that it wasn’t as daunting as you thought it would be, your life didn’t fall apart, and you likely get inspiration for your next step after seeing the results of your first step, making that second step feel even easier. You’ve now also realized that not only can you carve time out in your week but that you generally enjoy the time you’ve carved out in your week for this new journey.
Sometimes it’s okay to look back
There’s so much direction out in society to not look back and keep your eyes forward because you can’t change the past but you can create the future. And while I generally agree with that, there are some circumstances where it is beneficial to look back. Inspired steps are one of those circumstances.
When you put $20 in your savings account each week, after some time, you’re likely to feel like nothing is happening. How is $20 a week going to help you retire? But then you check after 6 months, a year, 2 years… and you’re blown away by how much you’ve accumulated from the power of consistency and compound interest.
While less tangible, the same concept is true for all your inspired steps. I believe that it’s almost inevitable at some point in your journey of inspired steps that you’re going to feel discouraged. You’re going to feel that you’re wasting your time and that the steps aren’t adding up. You may feel like you’re flailing about and that nobody sees you and that no progress is being made.
That’s when you keep going.
If you elevate yourself out of the situation and take a look back at how much you’ve grown as a person and how much progress you’ve made, your mindset is likely to shift. So much of what those inspired steps are accomplishing isn’t tangible results like money or recognition. The progress is self-exploration, putting mindset foundations in place, and practicing your craft even if, and especially when, no one is watching.
It’s all relative
The inspired steps are all relative. The size of an inspired step for one person will always be different from the size of an inspired step of the next person.
After you’ve saved $20 a week for some time and you’ve seen your saving account grow, there’s a good chance that you’re able to start increasing the amount that you put away per week. But even if you don’t, it doesn’t matter. The power of compounding interest has now turned that small amount of saving per week in bigger and bigger gains over time because interest is compounding on a higher balance. The jumps in your savings account several years later may not feel huge and start to feel like the norm, but when you look back at the $20 that you started with, the steps you’re currently taking that feel inconsequential are far bigger than that first seemingly inconsequential step you took.
The same thing is true in any new journey that you embark on. As you progress further in your journey, each inspired step along the way will feel small, doable, and potentially a bit mundane. But if you compare that inspired step to some of the first inspired steps you took, you’re likely to be shocked by how different in magnitude your current inspired steps are compared to the inspired steps you started with.
And that’s the magic of starting and sticking with your visions.
If you’re looking to take your next inspired step, let’s chat about how my copywriting services can support and amplify these steps paired with my unique coaching offerings to keep you going.
Disclosure: I only recommend products/services I would use myself and feel might benefit you as well. This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Disclaimer: This blog should not be construed as providing, or intending to provide, professional financial, legal, psychological, or other professional advice. It is simply meant to share my experiences for those that may find them relatable and helpful