What are baby steps, anyway?

I’ve been reading This Year I Will…: over the weekend and finding even more things to think about then the last time I read it. One thing in particular that stood out for me was the chapter on making changes by taking baby steps – only these were minuscule steps. For example if you wanted to be more consistent about flossing your teeth, starting with just one tooth and then working your way up.  I’ve been used to hearing about people that worked their way up to marathons by running one block and then one mile etc but not by running past one house and then two! Possibly I need to dial down my efforts a bit and they just might stick better.

The question I’m now wrestling with though is what are these minuscule steps if the topic is neither flossing nor running?  If the goal is widening your social circle to include both friends and potential dates, does that mean simply varying your routine by going to a different Starbucks?  Or doing one web search for local lectures? Or something else entirely?  It’s a puzzle, but one worth figuring out.  The alternative path would be do jump into yet another online dating site or speed dating etc.  That might seem like baby steps, I would have categorized it that way before, yet clearly that’s bigger than what we’re talking about here. No wonder the success rate of those things is so low; people are overwhelmed.

I’m also wondering if I could start running if I did just try it house by house – whee, I’m up to running past three houses!?  It might be an interesting experiment. Who cares how long something takes if you reach the goal?

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, baby steps

Tags: achieving goals, baby steps