Written by Christine Kane
Let’s say you had a baby.
Congratulations! Your baby is the best human ever!
You love your baby. You celebrate as it starts to crawl. You delight in this baby’s every new adventure.
Then, one day, the baby stands up on her own. “Yaaaaay!” you cheer. You think, “Wow. She’s gonna learn how to walk. Isn’t that great?”
One evening, your perfect child stands up again. She braces herself on the coffee table. Your partner grabs the movie camera. You call your parents in Idaho so they can listen to the play-by-play.
Your child lurches forward. Then, CLUNK. She falls onto her butt on the carpet.
“Awwwww,” you say. “Dang,” your partner says.
“Well, I guess that’s it. This one just wasn’t cut out for walking,” your parents say from their home in Boise. “Oh well,” you say. “It just wasn’t meant to be. Bummer.”
You hang up the phone. You turn off the camera. Tomorrow you’ll begin the search for a bigger stroller because your kid’s obviously gonna have to get through life on wheels.
Get the idea?
And yet, how many of us are already acting like this with our plans for the coming year or with our own new beginnings?
Your project, your dream, or your goal is your baby. If we all gave up on our kids as much as we give up on ourselves, then we’d have a race of humans with big calluses on their knees!
The Best Way to Create Anything: Baby Steps
Every big project or goal can be broken down into baby steps. Little lurches forward. Sometimes they’re clumsy. Sometimes they don’t even seem to make an impact. But this is how anything gets done.
- Years and years of built up clutter get sorted and thrown away one drawer at a time. (Plan for 30-minutes a day in one zone of the house – not “Get rid of clutter.”)
- Years and years of reckless eating and unhealthy habits get shifted one work-out at a time. (Plan a 45-minute work-out 5 days a week, and a once a month visit to an acupuncturist for a year – not “Lose 50 pounds by June.”)
- A song gets written in fits and starts. Hour by hour. Moment by moment. A flash of an idea. Then an edit. (Schedule in an hour of writing time in the morning. Start with scales to warm up. Not “Write Lots of Songs.”)
- A coach builds her practice one client at a time. (Schedule a daily system for authentic marketing. Not “Get 50 new clients by March.”)
That’s how it works.
Stinks, doesn’t it?
Actually, no.
This is the good news that no one ever tells you.
When you get this concept, you’ll never be afraid of failure again. When you learn how to break a goal down into baby steps, and how to complete something fantastic using this method, then you have the key to doing anything.
When you understand that everyone falls down and gets back up again (some of us on an hourly basis!), then you need only to trust in your strength to get back up again.
The only block is your ego.
Your ego wants it to be done now. Your ego wants to move through life risk-free, foolish-free, discouragement-free, mistake-free, tired-free. And the best way to trick your ego (and yourself) into letting go a little bit is to take baby steps.
I’m in the middle of coaching people in my Uplevel Your Business Program & Blueprint. These entrepreneurs are the most courageous clients I can imagine having. That’s because they are taking the biggest risk of all. They are taking Baby Steps!
Baby steps take courage. Baby steps are a huge risk to your ego because they are so easy. SO easy! The ego wants big deals, major accomplishments, huge weight-loss, and fast results. In other words, the ego likes adjectives, not nouns. Those adjectives guarantee that you’ll stay stuck and never try anything new. Over time you’ll get that deals, accomplishments, weight-loss, and results feel pretty good — even without adjectives.
Now, try this:
Take a goal you want to accomplish by the end of this year, and ask yourself, “What is one baby step could I take every day to complete this goal?” And then (and this is the big challenge) get out your calendar and schedule it in there daily for the rest of 2010.
Christine Kane is the Mentor to Women Who are Changing the World. She helps women uplevel their lives, their businesses and their success. Her weekly Live Creative eZine goes out to over 12,000 subscribers. If you are ready to take your life and your world to the next level, you can sign up for a F.R.E.E. subscription at http://christinekane.com.
WANT TO SEE HUNDREDS MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE? Visit Christine’s blog at ChristineKane.com/blog.
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As someone who has JUST finally started a blog after a couple of years of being scared to do it, this post is the best thing ever to read right now! Thanks for making anything seem doable.
A terrific post, Christine! It is so hard to put the ego aside. I am 63, an aspiring artist. I attended a plein air painting workshop yesterday, and was really disappointed with my personal results. But, I know that as I practise what I learned, one by one, my paintings will improve. (At least that is the expectation). Maria, I am so proud there are youngsters like you out there that are so wise. I must have been raised with the mushrooms most of my life. Keep up the good work.
Fantastic and well written!! This is such basic common sense yet a lot of us do not follow it! Thanks for putting it into words and for the kick in the butt!
Baby steps as courageous! The baby/walking metaphor gets right to the point and goes far beyond producing art.
Thanks.
Thank you Maria, always encouraging!
Yup, taking baby steps to reach your goal is the way to go.
This is a nice guest post.
Thanks to Maria for posting it.
You can do it no matter what your age.
You can be an artist at any age.
Age is a state of mind and art is timeless
Creativity has to do with consciousness. Our fixation with age and other material realities prevents consciousness from working its wonders.
Operate from the seat of consciousness–ignoring the phyical reality–and just do it. Take one step at a time. Take baby steps.
That’s how Pablo Picasso could create well into old age. Wrinkles and brittle bones do not an artist make, folks, art has to do with consciousness, the intangible aspect we all share.
Learn this lesson well if you aspire to be a creative person.
And hang in there. Tomorrow is another day even if you fail.
And remember that failure is success in disguise. Success is failure wearing a mask. In other words, honor the process of creation instead of exclusively focussing on the outcome.
Step into the magic of creativity and relish ice-cream like a baby.
Thanks Maria – What an honor to be a part of your blog (and your very cool community! Loved reading all the comments!) My view on creating ANYTHING (a new business, a piece of art, a new direction) is that most of it is about tricking the ego – whose job it is to just keep you safe and surviving!
Thanks for the encouraging words. I have been painting for well over 30 years and have sold many paintings over the years – mainly word-of-mouth, repeats, some local exhibitions. However, in past couple years everything seems to have come to a standstill. I have a website but little traffic to it. I am currently trying to sell on a site where “handmade” objects are the “drawing card”. I am a senior and don’t have forever so am not very patient with the “baby steps” theme. I have also attended a couple watercolor workshops this past summer and have attempted to become “bolder and looser” with the watercolors. There must be other artists out there who are having this same experience — any suggestions.
Your article is great and food for thought! God Bless.
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Love this post – I am awkwardly making my own steps toward a full-time artistic career, and now I feel so much better about the journey. Thank you Maria and Christine!
-Lisa
Thanks a lot for sharing this.
it’s the best thing to do to act instead of waiting for magic or burning the steps to result.
Slowly beginning somewhere, just as babies do !
The best thing to happen to me this year was finding your Blog.
For me personally, the fear of “not making it” right away has been the hardest to overcome. Or not being taken seriously as an artist.
Your blog has helped me realize that nothing happens overnight.
It’s one thing to know exactly what you want, and another to admit that you just have no clue on how to do it.
The old cliche, artists have no business sense, is definitely true for me. I do know what I want, but have the fear of making it happen.
With your blog, I hope to change that.
Thank You!
Thanks, AJ. I’m glad you found my blog and I hope it continues to give you helpful information and inspiration to keep creating!
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this was really cool. When I first started reading I thought I was on the wrong post, but that was an amazing analogy especially since I have 3 kids who fell many times before they walked. Kickass post.
Thank you so much Maria, your articles are so inspiring, I started over coming my artist block and taking the baby steps to get into the local market and sell some of my art work. A beginner artist from Dahab, Egypt.