The Next Smallest Step
This morning I ran a favorite loop from my home. I love this route that takes me west down my street to a trail loop that winds up and around a gentle mountain; I do it a couple of times a week. Round trip it’s 7.5 miles with a lot of climbing and it takes me around 90 minutes on a decent weather day.
However, as I was lacing up my shoes this morning - for whatever reason - I had a moment of ‘ugh’. In minute 0 of my run, the idea of 90 minutes up and around a mountain felt daunting, just ‘too big’. I recognized the thought for the brain fart it was, and headed out anyway. The rest of the story is predictable…as is almost always the case, it was a great run. There was sunshine, beautiful vistas and the requisite amount of cute Boulder dogs. 90 minutes flew by and before I knew it I was home.
It did get me thinking, though. Why is starting the hardest part?
In self-discovery work when there is something that we want to change or create, taking the first step can feel crippling. My theory: we unconsciously make the ‘thing’ we are thinking about so big in our mind that it can feel like a mountain looming over us. It starts to feel impossible, and we can defeat ourselves before we even begin.
Think of something in your life that you want. It could be a problem that needs solving, or a change that you’d like to make happen. When you close your eyes and imagine it, where in your mind’s eye do you ‘see’ it? Small and off to the side? Big and right in front of you? However you experience it in your imagination, now try the opposite (if it’s big and up close, move it off to one side and make it small…and vice versa). What do you notice?
The antidote to ‘big project paralysis’ is so simple as to be easily overlooked: take the next smallest step. What would be the next smallest step towards making that move across the country you’ve been dreaming of? Or the next smallest step towards finding work that you love doing and that is more aligned with your values?
Even better, here’s a way to amp it up. Imagine yourself sometime in the future…3 months, 6 months, a year…whatever feels intuitively fun. Imagine this future version of you has the thing, or is doing the thing, that you want. Imagine yourself having fun, laughing, playing, really enjoying this thing that you’ve figured out how to create. Once you can tap into this ‘future feeling’, you’re onto something: you can feel this way now. Now bring this future feeling right back into ‘now’. From this good feeling, what small next step can you take? After all, this future version of you has it all figured out, and knows how good it is to have accomplished that change. You are tapping into some valuable wisdom as you ask this question! Listen for the answer.
While we tend to think of life changes or new creations as uniform, solid things, they are ever only accomplished one step at a time. Each step you take reveals new information about yourself and the world; each time you tap into your future feeling you access your own inner wisdom. Each step you take unlocks learning and gets you closer to where you are going. What next smallest step could you take today?
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