The First Step You Take Is Always The Most Important One

“The first few steps you take on any journey
won’t get you where you want to go.
But without those first steps
and the many more that follow,
you would always be standing
right where you are,
looking towards the future
and wondering what it would
really be like
to see your world
the way you always dreamed it could be.”
Nick Santana

Interesting quote. It makes me think about how a baby gets up and tries to take that first step. Sometimes they fall down and other times they take a few steps and then fall down. They keep trying until finally they can walk across the room. I remember my daughter Jill’s first steps and the smile on her face when she was able to walk across the room.

I am thinking we never lose that ability to keep trying until we succeed, it only gets buried under our ego, thoughts and fears. How can we awaken the desire to continue taking those first steps?

What usually works is a desire to make a change. Let’s take for instance you want to lose 20 pounds by Christmas. Your ego and thoughts want to protect you from failure so they tell you, “It is impossible to lose 20 pounds by Christmas, so why even try - and look at all the fun you will miss by not eating your mother’s Christmas cookies.” Listening to your ego and thoughts, you decide not to go on a diet until after New Years.

Let’s change the situation. Your ego and thoughts still tell you the same story, however, you want to lose some weight before Christmas. Your first step is to read the “Getting Off the Diet Merry-Go-Round” blog and find some tools you can use to change your behavior. You re-read the November 7, 2007 article and like some of the steps that were suggested. Making a decision, you decide you are going to try the following two steps:

1. STOP dieting and eat one healthy meal a day.
2. Look in the mirror every morning and tell yourself out loud, “I love you.” At first it may be hard and as time goes on it gets easier.

By taking any small steps, it will renew the same ability you had as a baby to keep striving until you reach your goal. It does not matter if you fail. It only matters whether or not you continue taking the steps until your new behavior becomes a habit. As Nick Santana states in his quote, the first steps are the most important because it starts you on your journey of taking the required steps to see your dream come true.

I invite you to start taking one to two small steps and continue taking them everyday until they become a habit before changing your plan or adding additional steps. It has been proven that it takes 21 days to change a habit. Please let me know how you are progressing and whether you need any support. I can be reached by leaving a comment on the ‘Getting Off The Diet Merry-Go-Round blog or sending an email to [email protected].

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