Small Steps

"Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step in your life. Tiptoe if you must, but take a step." 
Naeem Callaway, Founder and CEO of Get Out The Box Inc., a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization dedicated to educating and mentoring at-risk youth in low income and rural communities.

A small step. 

 How many of us decide on a goal - "lose 20 pounds," "workout every day," or pay off credit card debt?" Every one of them will make our lives better, healthier, happier. As we all know, the issue is that these are just too large to wrap our heads around. Lose 20 pounds - sure, how? Pay off debt - yes, how? And, of course, we all want instant success! Immediate gratification! Rewards for our sacrifice! What we've probably done is set ourselves up for failure.  

Tiptoe.

Instead of waffles for breakfast, have eggs. Do one lap around the neighborhood and worry about push-ups later. (Or never, if I had my way.) Keep track of how many days in a row you don't use that credit card. Small steps. And give yourself time - time to make these changes a regular part of your life. Time to see results. It's not easy when we are programmed to tick items off the to-do list and pack as much as we can into every day. Give yourself time to breathe. 

I am not preaching. I promise.  It's the conversation I've been having with myself since January 1st. I've made myself look at the things I do daily with a critical eye. Do I really need to have 8 tabs open when I boot up the computer? When I realized that a couple of them were major "time-sucks" in my day, I changed the settings—a small step.

Do I need to watch an hour of MSNBC at lunchtime? Nope. (Well, only if there is something really important going on…) Instead, I'll focus on eating something healthy.

Is finishing the New York Times crossword puzzle necessary to the start of my day? Hmmm…some habits are going to be harder to change. After all, doing a crossword puzzle is good for your brain, right? The question is, why do I have to do it right then? Maybe move it to lunchtime while I'm munching on that piece of healthy fruit?

Why is it that I think my brain stops to function creatively after 3 p.m.? It's not true - just something I've told myself. Gotta jettison that! I could undoubtedly do paperwork then or reading/research for a class and work back towards using the afternoon to jot down topic ideas or revisit an essay started months ago. 

 How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. (Thank you, Desmond Tutu.) What may be daunting can be accomplished if we let ourselves celebrate incremental changes. It's one of the concepts James Clear uses in his book Atomic Habits. As he says in Chapter 1, - "Small changes often appear to make no difference until you cross a critical threshold. The most powerful outcomes of any compounding process are delayed. You need to be patient." 

I didn't eat that cookie. I wrote for 20 minutes. I organized a shelf in the basement.
Small steps. But steps nonetheless.