Taking Baby Steps Before We Can Run

Last week, while conducting a workshop on Blogging, I spoke about the fact that it’s important to understand we have a learning curve to get through when delving into Blogging, or any of the Social Media venues, for that matter.

We need to allow ourselves the time to gain experience and make mistakes – and learn from them. But most important we need to set goals that we can easily achieve.

Isn’t that like cheating? Knowing you can achieve the goal when you set it?

Let’s think of it in terms we can all relate to. Not a single one of us was born being able to walk – let alone run. We drooled a lot and cried and managed to crawl around on the floor. Then one day we pulled ourselves upright and stood there on wobbly legs. Wow! What a different world it was up there!

We took our first step.

Guess what happened – yeah – we fell down on our butt. We probably cried the first time – out of surprise more than pain. But we tried it again. And soon we figured out that this was the process…stand up…take a step…fall down…get back up.

This was one of our first big lessons about life. We’re going to fall down. And we have to get back up and try again.

But it didn’t take us long to get the hang of toddling around. How exciting! We were on the move! And before we knew it, we could walk with confidence. We were on our way to somewhere. And before long our feet fairly flew over the ground as we ran like the wind over the Earth’s surface.

But before we could run with such confidence, we had to take those first wobbly steps and fall down.

What does all this have with setting goals?

When we start out on a new adventure, failure is right around the corner…waiting. Outsmart it by setting some initial goals that you know you can achieve. Win some of the first battles and gain some confidence in your abilities before upping the stakes.

When you set near-impossible-to-achieve goals at the start, you are going to struggle, get frustrated – maybe fail. You’ll get discouraged and give up.

Giving yourself the gift of taking baby steps at the beginning will let you learn to walk with confidence, and soon you’ll be running to places you never thought possible.