Hello friends. It’s Janine from JSK Stories. I’m really excited to talk to you about today’s creativity lesson: baby steps
I don’t know about you but whenever I start something new – a new project, a new goal, a new adventure – I get super excited. So many ideas! So much potential! So much to do!
And then, the reality starts to set in.
So much to do.
When we think about our creative projects as a whole thing, it can start to feel overwhelming. There’s so much work to be done. So much time to invest. And where do I even start?
At this point, it is easy to give up. To stop. To let the project collect dust in the corner. Which is why it’s so important that we think about our projects in terms of baby steps.
“Baby steps” is the method of breaking down a large project into the smallest manageable pieces. Personally, it always makes me think about the hilarious 90’s movie, What About Bob? Bob is a man dealing with lots of issues. He’s at the point where he is so paralyzed by fear that he can’t do anything. So his therapist tells him to take baby steps, which he describes as setting “small reasonable goals for yourself, one day at a time. One tiny step at a time.”
Bob LOVES this idea.
Instead of being overwhelmed about having to leave his appointment and go home, he breaks it down. Baby steps out of the office. Baby steps down the hallway. Baby steps on the elevator. Suddenly, things that were overwhelming just a few minutes ago suddenly feel possible. Even easy. And he learns that:
“All I have to do is take one step at a time and I can do anything.”
It’s the same with us. While writing a whole play or sewing a whole costume or creating a whole light plot might seem overwhelming – causing you to quit in the middle or never even get started – baby steps allow you to tackle it one element at a time.
Write a whole play? Are you kidding? But I could sit down and write an outline.
Sew a whole costume? No thank you. But I could pattern out the sleeve.
Create a whole light plot? Ummm, nope. But I could research colors in a sunset.
That outline leads to writing a scene. That pattern leads to sewing a seam. And that research leads to picking a palette. And slowly, baby step by baby step, progress is made. As you see progress, motivation is felt. And motivation pushes you to complete the next baby step. And, step by step, your project is finished.
All it took was baby steps.
Which leads us to today’s Creativity Challenge:
I want you to think of an idea for a project that you currently have. Something that you’ve been thinking about doing but haven’t gotten around to. What are the baby steps needed to make it happen? What are the smallest manageable steps that, when you put them all together, would make your idea a reality?
Write them down. Make them as small and reasonable as possible.
Then, once you have your list – do the first one.
Want to share your list? You can submit it here. Who knows, we just might share it in an upcoming article or video!