For our latest family movie night, we watched the Bill Murray classic "What About Bob?". Bill Murray plays Bob an irritating patient of a psychiatrist (Dr. Leo Marvin) played by Richard Dreyfus.
It's one of those movies that makes you feel so awkward sometimes you have to look away. Kind of like Michael Scott on The Office.
Bob is worried about getting back home from Dr. Leo's office, so Dr. Leo teaches Bob about Baby Steps. He tells him not to think about ALL the stuff he has to do to get home.
You break it into baby steps. First, just get out of the office. Then walk down the hallway, Then the elevator, etc...
This is great advice for the times we are in right now too!
Maybe your habits have started to slip and you find yourself even further out of shape. And with these circumstances we are in now, what's the use?
It can be very overwhelming, much like Bob trying to go out in the world.
But you can use baby steps too.
Think about if you improved just 1% every day. If you ate 15 fewer calories a day. For those doing the step challenge, if you got 100 more steps. Did one more squat. Those don’t sound like very much, but those little steps will become your new norm.
Then the next thing you know, you are eating 20, then 50, then 100 fewer calories per day. Regularly getting 6000, then 8000, and then 10,000 steps. That one squat becomes 2, then 5, then adding weights.
Your extra 1% effort compounds over time.
Big changes can come from those little, extra 1% drips. Don’t think you have to become a superhero overnight to change your life.
A 1% step in the right direction creates positive momentum and will lead to change, but it will take patience. Stay the course.
Think of an area you could improve 1%, figure out what that looks like for you, and start small today.
Baby steps to the goal you want to achieve.