SelfhelpMagazine Blog

On how a bunch of baby steps can make a big change, Dini wrote:

-snip-

Hope I don't offend you with this; it's something I do to myself which is why I recognize it; you say you are "only" taking baby steps – sort of hitting yourself with the stick because they are "only" baby steps. When I do that to myself I try to remind myself that it is "only" baby steps, taken one by one, one day at a time, that lead to the "big changes" you say you want to make. Big changes, even the thought of them, can and do overwhelm me; baby steps I can (usually) handle. It is only after a whole bunch of baby steps that I realize I've made a big change (and wonder, how in the world did that happen?).

So I'm all in favor of baby steps. My experience with depression and anxiety has also been (and has been this past week especially) that it often feels like one step forward, two or three steps backwards, and sometimes it is -when first told this by a therapist, that this is part of the nature and process of depression, I really didn't believe her, but I've found through experience that it has been the case. In the long run, the baby steps win out.

Last night I said a few brief words at an AA meeting but they were very significant words for me to say out loud as I had never said such a thing out loud before. Maybe they will resonate with you. I said "I didn't and couldn't do much of anything today. And I did the best I could today." (And I heard a guy's voice behind me kindly, quietly and gently say "and that's OK" – I wanted to turn around and hug him and cry).

Hope none of that is presumptuous of me and mostly I hope something in there is helpful to you Lycra.

Hang in. One baby step at a time.