(free pdf download from Brooklyn Limestone)
It’s super difficult to keep taking baby steps. Even babies want to do more than that. My niece was quicker than the speed of light. The minute her mother set her on the ground after getting her out of her car seat, she was off like a shot down the driveway, toward the street. Good thing for those monkey backpacks with those long tails (read: leashes).
We seem to think that if only we can go fast and do it bigger, we’re really succeeding. That’s a bunch of hocus pocus.
Baby steps, folks. Baby steps. You want to write a novel, start a photography business, build a web site, or design a dress? You start with the little things. You do one or two things at a time, you don’t try and complete the entire project in one sitting.
But we like to think we can do that. That we too have Superman powers and that with a snap of our fingers, we can just make it happen. That overnight the idea will bloom for us. And when it doesn’t, we shake our fists at God, at the universe, even at ourselves.
I think we’re living in la la land. But most successful artists were there too. Every successful artist (every person alive today, in fact) lived in la la land at least once or twice. The key is to leave, move out, get a sturdy walking stick, forge the stream.
Where do we get when we leave this place where anything seems possible?
We get to reality. We get to baby steps. We get to a road. It’s a road on which we must walk, step by step, small forward motion by small forward motion. There is no magic in the work, but there is magic in the effort.
As we take those baby steps, we suddenly begin to see how we could improve our idea, how if this idea could be properly contained, it might actually be something someday.
A lot of blocked artists are discouraged by such talk. “Don’t talk to me about the work,” they grouse. “I want to talk about the end, the arrival, the dream.”
Sure, that’s what keeps us all going on this road. The road is hard. The end looks great. It beckons like glittering Oz. But the only reason it glitters so is because we’re still on the road.
Get off the road and the glittering image disappears into oblivion. It stays out of reach. You don’t reach the end unless you’re on the road. You don’t complete projects unless you start with baby steps.
And doing the baby steps, walking the road, is a heck of a lot better than nursing a dream that you once could see glittery in the distance. You gotta take the first baby step and keep at it to get to that dream.
I think I’m probably breaking a lot of blocked artist’s bubbles today. They’d rather hold their dream out of reach because it’s funner to just dream than to go after it. Going after it means trekking through muddy patches, deep puddles, harsh wind, pelting rain, and being tired after a day of walking.
It means looking inside to find out if you love your dream as much as you think you do. Remember that book/movie “He’s Just Not That Into You”? (terrible movie, actually) This is the same principle at work. It’s human instinct. If you really love the dream, you’ll attempt the dream. Nothing will get in your way. Nothing will deter you from the road, nothing will stop you. Sure, you’ll take breaks. You’ll rest, you’ll sit down by the side of the road, sometimes in a puddle, just to catch your breath. But the dream is not unreachable, it’s within reach, because you’re on the road and you’re not going to give up . . . EVER.
And contrary to popular religious opinion, God does not snatch dreams away. If a door closes, you can be completely sure that another one has opened ahead of you. God does not play dice with the universe, or I might add, with humans.
Action Tip: What’s your dream? What is one baby step you can take TODAY? Can you list the next few baby steps toward that dream? Can you avoid plunking down large amounts of money for these baby steps? (That’s another form of resistance that we’ll talk about later.) Can you just expend the energy? Put your checkbook away for now. Just commit to staying on the road. And if you’re sitting in a mud puddle and have been there for a while, how about getting up and walking just for today? Even if it’s to the next mud puddle. 
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