We all crave excellence, but sometimes our BIG ideas can seem unattainable. That’s when we need to remember the power of incremental baby steps.
The continuous improvement formula for excellence is simple:
- Choose something that is (or used to be) popular.
- Add a splash of something new.
- You’ve got an appealing new option based on your fresh twist!
If something is too different, we may have a tendency to reject it out of hand because we find it hard to relate to or it feels unachievable. But if a product, service or activity is simply a new spin on an old favorite, it’s familiar enough to be embraced, yet new enough to be enticing.
Here’s one of my favorite examples. Years ago when I was focused on letting go of excess pounds and becoming more fit, a personal trainer made a suggestion. Over a period of months, I had been consistently walking on the treadmill at a good pace and significant incline for 30 minutes six days a week. I had lost 40 pounds and was enjoying much greater energy. When a trainer suggested I stop holding onto the handrails to more effectively engage my core and stabilizer muscles, I balked. I knew that if I didn’t hold on, I’d have to reduce my pace and incline to keep from falling. If I did so, I was afraid I’d have to double the length of my workout in order to avoid regaining the lost weight and continue losing.
As so often happens, FEAR was holding me back from an even bigger breakthrough.
The trainer assured me that the need to slow down would be temporary and that after a week or two, I’d be right back to my usual workout level. Meanwhile, by working my core more effectively, my workout would become even more efficient and I’d increase my overall strength and stability, helping me avoid one of the major health risks of aging–falling and breaking bones.
I got myself over the initial hurdle by committing to trying it for just two weeks. I promised myself that if after two weeks, I didn’t like it for any reason, I could go back to my old approach. The first day I had to reduce my speed from my usual five mph to just one mph and my incline from five percent to zero. I got through the 30 minutes with a good bit of wobbling and moments of touching the handrails with a finger to be sure they were still there if I really needed them. Within a week I was humming along without holding on at all. In two weeks, my speed and incline had returned to my previous level.
What a sense of accomplishment! I didn’t have to work any harder to get even greater benefit from my current investment of energy. I just needed to be willing to take an incremental baby step in a slightly different direction.
When you start to pay attention, you’ll notice this approach everywhere, from social networking sites to cell-phones, cars to vacation hot spots, workout equipment to fitness regimens. Many great things aren’t completely new, they are just a step ahead of what came before. Demonstrating once again the power of baby steps! When something is too extreme, FEAR can stop us in our tracks. But a little twist here and there smooths our way, perks up the mundane and amplifies our empowerment.
What small shift will YOU make TODAY to expand your world and inspire yourself and those around you to greatness?
© Copyright 2014 DJW Life Coach LLC. All rights reserved.
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About djwlifecoach
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities.
During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll.
My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world.
111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness.
Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled.
Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else.
I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do.
By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire.
My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework.
For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.
Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! 