…even when … ESPECIALLY WHEN … you don’t believe in yourself.
Let’s say you get yourself a puppy from the SPCA.
Your bundle of fluff is the cutest woofer in the history of the world.
OK, so you might be a bit biased.
You love your pup. You celebrate its eyes opening, its first shaky steps.
From cover to cover you devour the latest canine guru’s guide to house training……and, the very next day, your pup uses the litter tray.
All. By. Itself.
“Good boooooooooooooooooy!” you cheer, clapping your hands with glee.
“This is one clever dog,” you think to yourself. “This is eaaasy.”
Later that evening, you’re lying on the carpet in front of the fire, playing with your pup-ster.
Without warning, your perfect pooch poops over your favourite wool rug.
“Oh noooooo,” you whine.
“Crap,” laments your partner.
“Well, I guess that’s it. This one just isn’t smart enough to be house-trained,” your friend chimes in.
“It just wasn’t meant to be. Bummer,” you agree.
Disappointed, you put the pup in its kennel. In your head you’ve already fast forwarded to tomorrow when you’ll head to the mall to buy some doggy nappies because clearly your dog’s NEVER going to get the idea of house-training.
<<Sigh>>
End of story.
I know, it’s an extreme example….but you get the idea, hey.
And yet, how many of us act like this towards ourselves with our own new beginnings?
Your project.
Your dream.
Your weight loss goal …
…is your new puppy.
We never give up on our woofers … yet how many of us can say that, hand on heart, about ourselves and our dreams?
I’m NOT pointing the finger! Just askin’.
How’d you like to know the best way to create ANYTHING? Especially when you don’t believe?
Here tis…
Tiddler Steps
Every big goal can be chunked down into baby steps. Minuscule lurches forward.
Sometimes they’re messy. Sometimes they don’t even seem to make an impact.
But this is how anything gets done.
Many years of reckless eating gets shifted one work-out at a time.
Plan a 15-minute work-out five days per week…NOT “I must lose 15 kilograms by next week.”
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, then you have the key to doing anything.
When you understand that everyone falls down (craps in inappropriate places), then you need ONLY to trust in your strength to get back up again. And again.
THE ONLY BLOCK IS YOUR EGO.
Your ego wants it to be done right now. Your ego wants to move through life free from ALL risks: foolish-free, discouragement-free, mistake-free.
And the best way to trick your ego (and yourself) into letting go a little bit is to take those tiddler steps.
Tiddler steps take courage. And they’re a huge risk to your ego because they are E.A.S.Y.
Your ego (and everyone else’s – mine too!) wants major, fast accomplishments, right bla-de now!
It’s this All or Nothing Thinking that guarantees you’ll stay stuck and never take the steps you need to take to get the result you’re after.
You can accomplish anything if you break the task down into small enough chunks.
Taking this tiddler steps concept to a curious level is a French chap. He ate an aeroplane. You read that right. He ATE an aeroplane. How’d he do it? Easy. He broke the metal into tiny pieces and ate small amounts over a period of months. It sure gives ‘aeroplane food’ a whole new meaning…
Not for a second am I suggesting you eat an aeroplane, because that’d just be silly. But it does rather prove a point, doesn’t it. And it’s a great metaphor for achieving your weight loss goal. Microscopic steps and anything is possible.
Putting This Into Action.
Take your weight loss goal (or any goal you want to accomplish by the end of this year), and ask yourself,
“What one tiddler 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 daily for the rest of 2011.
That’s all.
That’s enough.
Go get started on YOUR (metaphoric) aeroplane right now.
Love etc, Avril
