In 1991 a movie named What About Bob was released in theaters. Bill Murray’s character, Bob, suffers from multiple phobias and eventually sees a therapist. The therapist recommends that Bob take what he calls “baby steps” in order to overcome these phobias and live a life free of fear. Just in case this is on your list of movies to watch this weekend I will not spoil it for you but I think baby steps are worth talking about.
I work with 60+ of the top real estate agents in the country. The mass majority of these agents will outwork anyone. They are results driven, motivated, and will not let anything get in the way of achieving their goals. I think it’s fair to say that all of these are great qualities to have as a business owner yet sometimes they’re the reason we get stuck. It’s been my observation that high achieving individuals will sometimes stray away from starting something they aren’t great at or even worse they start something new and expect to make huge unrealistic strides in a very short period of time only to end up defeated at the first sign of struggle.
This is where baby steps come in. If you can relate to either of these examples in your own business in life, sometimes being happy with baby steps or celebrating small progress will go a very long way. It’s very easy to see this when we use health as an example. If you are extremely out of shape and you want to run a marathon it would be almost ridiculous to wake up at 4am tomorrow morning and attempt to run as hard as you can for as long as you can and expect success. That mindset is a recipe for disaster. Conversely if you made the commitment to walk ½ mile or maybe even 1 mile tomorrow morning you could be well on your way to a marathon if you stick with the habit long enough. Sometimes our drive, ambition, ego or whatever it may be gets in the way causing us to quit before we realize the success or not even start because the place we would have to start is such a small baby step we don’t even want to bother.
Does this show up anywhere in your business or life?
Where would baby steps be appropriate?
Are you having trouble getting to the gym? Perhaps a baby step wake up tomorrow morning and drive to the gym. That’s it. Just drive there.
Are you resisting getting on the phone? Call your relative or a close friend.
Sometimes taking baby steps will give you just enough momentum to take a larger step and eventually you’re sprinting through the entire marathon.