THE FIRST STEP IS ALWAYS THE HARDEST

Making changeAchieving goalsYour WhyAction planning

Feb 16

I know the feeling well. You make your mind up you want to do something and so you want to get it done right away, make it happen because you’ve got clear on what you want. Maybe it’s booking a holiday, and now you know it’s going to be a reality, you have to get stuck straight into your research and check the reviews out to get it booked ASAP. Or perhaps you’ve decided you want to change the decor in your bedroom, so you get on Pinterest, create your boards, start googling wallpaper and bedding, then on Saturday you’re straight off to Ikea to pick up your new accessories! Why wait when you know what you want to do?!

The culture we’re part of has created a sense of immediacy in how we live. We feel like once we’ve got clear on what we want to achieve or have in our lives, we need to make it happen right away. This can be a great driver in many respects. It can help you to get motivated and take appropriate action to achieve what you want. On the flip side, however, it can have detrimental effects.

When you immediately want to get going, it can instead cause procrastination. You are so eager to get to the finish line that you don’t know where to start. It can also seem like you’re facing a tall, impossible to climb mountain from the off. You have your aim or goal clear, but the urgency to have it completed straight away ends up making you unsure of where to start; it seems impossible to get started when the whole thing is starring at you head-on.

The approach I encourage and teach in my coaching programmes is to take small steps. In my experience, when you have a clear goal, even if it’s something you want to achieve pretty quickly, planning out the actions to achieve it using small, specific steps is key to getting the results you want. This way, what you need to start doing feels much more manageable and achievable, which is a key part of the process to get where you want to be.

A powerful part of the strategy to help you achieve your goals is to acknowledge and celebrate your progress along the way. When you make progress by taking small steps, recognising the gains you’re making at each step, provides momentum to keep moving forward and achieving even more. These small steps to success give you focus and motivation, as opposed to only seeing the top of the mountain you need to climb and feeling immediately overwhelmed.

What is often still hard for many people is taking the very first step. There are many reasons why even the smallest of steps can be daunting and feel out of reach.

Here are a few of the most common reasons people hesitate at taking the first step:

Making any change feels out of reach because you tell yourself a story that you aren’t capable of changing.
Existing habits pull you back to doing only what you know and are comfortable with.
You have no momentum, you’re starting brand new so it requires energy and effort.
The road ahead seems too big and impossible so fear of not being able to succeed keeps you stuck where you are.
You put reasons to not take that step in your way, often because of fear and facing the unknown.
You actually sabotage yourself without realising it. Your subconscious is powerful and works to protect you, in this case from the failure of whatever it is you want to achieve.

The reality is that taking the first step, even when it’s only a very small one, can still be too much for people to accomplish. Tapping into your WHY* and being clear on why it is you want to achieve your goal, why it matters to you and why it would get you where you want to be in your life, will help drive your forward in the right direction. With a bit of clarity, connection to your why and a commitment to make it happen, you can propel yourself over that first step. You’ll gain momentum and find the next steps become easier, they can be taken with ease and flow.

Think about what it is you’ve been holding off on from your list of goals because it just seems so far from reach. What did you decide to do and try to dive straight into, but quickly hit a brick wall because you didn’t know where to start, or began doubting your ability? Can you pick this back up and now plan out only a couple of very small, specific steps to take this next week? Give it a go and feel the energy you create when you’ve climbed the first step. You’ll soon be celebrating your achievements and wins, knowing you’ve moved forward and now feel ready to go the full distance, believing in yourself you can get where you want to be.

* I talk about getting clear on your ‘WHY’ in one of my earlier blogs you can read here.