Baby Steps

I am sitting here watching the Australian Open tennis marvelling how at such a high level each point is vitally important. Every point represents a baby step to the ultimate goal, winning the match. This can be translated to any area of your life - step by step, any goal can be reached.

When I was 30, I decided I was going to fulfill my fifteen year dream of visiting Europe, mainly France, for my 40th birthday. I loved French classes at school and had a funny, caring, inspirational French teacher and I never stopped questioning him about his experiences to do with France. It was like I had a connection to that country. At 30 I was a single mum with two young boys, 5 and 3 years old and I was a stay at home mum at the time, my values being I wanted to be there for them at such a young age. There was no way, on a pension, I could imagine how to save for a European holiday but I was absolutely determined. Step by step, I methodically put away whatever I could towards my dream.

As it turned out, my husband and four children ended up coming with me - the three boys on the proviso that they save their airfare and spending money. It took them three and a half years to do it by saving pocket money, Christmas and birthday money, washing cars, taking people's garbage bins in and out and baking and selling cookies but I'm so glad (and so are they) that I set the bar that high. I can see in their ideals now how much of an effect it has had on their goal setting and savings capacity. Also, I didn't require my little dream fund after all. We were able to take the money out of our business as dividends to pay for it. At 30, I could have never imagined where the money was going to come from to provide the fabulous experience we had but I strongly believe that setting the intention with complete conviction and taking baby steps to achieve that manifested the experience beyond my expectations.

Spanish Steps Rome

The Italians were lovingly fussing over D climbing the steps on his crutches, directing him to the nearby lift. D just said, "But then I would have missed out on the experience of climbing them."

Another area of my life I take baby steps in is my health and fitness. Daily habits of diet and exercise are really important to me and I notice that when I let these habits slip, other areas of my life are affected in a negative way. That doesn't mean complete discipline. If I miss a couple of days of exercise, there is no guilt or beating myself up. Just move on and start again tomorrow. Transitioning to a higher raw lifestyle at the moment, I have set myself a goal of one new recipe a day so that I can increase my repertoire of quick, easy and delicious healthy meals and is another step by step process. A little bit each day adds up to a massive difference by the end of the year.

There are many other areas this can also be applied to - starting a business, parenting, home educating your children, walking the Great North Walk one leg at a time - one baby step at a time can lead to massive results.

Love Karen