Little steps don’t get the appreciation they deserve to get. The attention of joy, relief, and a certain proudness appear more in association when the last of little steps was taken and we arrived at our goal.
As if you climbed up a big mountain to sit restfully on its top and enjoy the moment.
But without all the little steps that carried you, you wouldn’t be having such an amazing view.
Confucius was hinting to it by his saying:
“The journey is the destination.”
The power and magic of little steps.
But the really big impact of forgetting the value of the little steps is more obvious when we recognize that too many people don’t start the journeys towards the realization of some big dreams or goals of them because they aren’t aware of the magic of the little steps and their power.
Too often people don’t even start their journeys because their dream is so big that it can make one give up immediately.
Which results out of a sort of cognitive bias almost.
Because all achieved big dreams or goals consist out of many little steps.
An example from the nature can help to better picture it. When you hike through nature and there is a river that is too wide to jump over or just a little mountain creek you can easily jump over with one step.
The lack of turning the focus from the big desired end result directly on the very first little steps in the right direction, the very first steps that are easily takeable, is a major reason many people stay in their comfort zone and don’t start their personal fulfilling journey towards a personal big dream that perhaps is with them already for a long while and highly connected to one of their personal callings in life.
The lack of seeing the little steps is a cognitive bias in the sense that one forgets that one is always only able to do just a very view things in one moment anyway.
We can learn a lot from Buddhism and Zen-Buddhism for a big part when we like to achieve something. It sounds paradox, because Zen is about just doing something, and being so immersed with it, that there isn’t even space for thinking about for what or why you do it actually.
But this “hardcore focus” can help a lot in focusing only on one takeable step after another, without getting paralyzed by the big amount of little steps that are still to be taken, when looking at the top of the mountain of our big goal.
It is very similar to the mood in which you can get in when you are hiking a rather difficult track. You start to focus on putting simply one foot before the other, which can bring you even in a state of meditation, being totally immersed in consciously taking one step after another and not much more. The stream of thoughts becomes much slower if it doesn’t even stop its current for short moments.
The little taken steps have the power to elevate your confidence, self-esteem, and sense of meaning in your life.
The speed with which the illusion of time is running, or better the speed of one moment passing after another, is doing us all a favor when we start doing simply one necessary task after another that lead us to where we want to be.
Suddenly in a more quiet moment where your mind has time to get more still and reflect, you recognize how much you already advanced from when you started to take consciously a step towards a seducing and fulfilling goal.
A first step.
A first step can be to think about which goals are really pulling? Which way of living? With what kind of people? Being paid for what ideally? Being very good at a particular thing? The search for the answer is an important first step.
Thinking that it will come by itself is often enough not working. Too many people who never dared to live their dreams is a sad proof for that. Focusing on what really excites and fulfills you is also a good way. Those things can often enough be the stable ground for building a beautiful goal or even career out of it.
Enjoy all of the steps towards your personal mountain top – because it is your mountain.
And don’t forget to enjoy the growing view regularly, it recharges your energy and drive to walk on.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
Mark Twain
