"Dream big but act small"  Take a babystep (no matter how small!) at least once per month, patiently and persistently moving towards making your Dream Work real.

From Onna:

At first thought Aross, it’s baby steps!  Creating small incremental steps in the right direction coupled with patience and the perspective that none of what can be achieved will be achieved overnight. But will become the sum of all its parts if one is to just begin to create that momentum for it.  Start small.  It takes the pressure off!    

Where to start becomes a fundamental starting and conversely a stopping place for people.   Removing those barriers to what starts and stops a person, becomes a gateway, place to start and a place to remove that barrier. 

Case in point: I was talking to a friend of mine about tax liens investing.  Ah, he said, “you’d need a full time job to manage that” and he wasn’t ready to quit his day job.  So he concluded he wouldn’t start.  “No,” I replied just do a little here and a little there and in no time you could build it up.

11.12.10 ADDITION:

The Power Of Baby Steps

Our US & western/capitalist cultures have adopted the idea over time that “bigger is better”.  Does one pill help? Take 10!  Is it your dream to have a 2-bedroom house?  Think big!  Why not 10 bedrooms?

How do you eat an elephant?  “One bite at a time”.  How do you create, build and grow an authentic business?  One baby step at a time.  Baby steps make it easier to take action, and increase enjoyment.  While it looks sexy to do some kind of huge software project, product launch or big event, and while “big leaps” can get big business results...they always create a lot of anxiety at the same time.  I’m not saying don’t take big leaps, because there can be lots of value in taking ‘em, but don’t belittle the baby steps!  I want you to fall in love with baby steps!   

Somewhere along the way, the power of baby steps - little steps - has been lost.  Well, if it was ever discovered :)  today when everyone seems to be or feel so busy, big steps usually intimate and paralyze people into inaction.  The bigger the step someone thinks they should take, the more likely they get paralyzed and take no step at all.  

Baby steps are brilliant and beautiful!  Just by taking one small step, you make progress and unlock a whole host of new ideas that you never saw before...because you’re now standing in a new spot from which to create.

PebbleStorm began with baby steps.  For almost a year, from July 2007 to March 2008, I just wrote and chatted with people about PebbleStorm and Unique Genius.  That’s it.  I didn’t write an ebook, hold events, hire a coach (I didn’t know what coaching was), or try to create any software or social networks.  Mostly I just wrote up ideas on my online wiki (pebblestorm.pbworks.com) as they came to me.  In early 2008 I took a baby step of moving some of what I’d written to a blog: PebbleStorm.com.  Back then, I didn’t know what to call it!  Some example ideas included:

Then, two ‘big’ baby steps in March of 2008 (-or was it May?) were 1) Sharing the PebbleStorm blog with people, and 2) changing my “what do you do” answer.  That is, when people asked what I did, instead of answering “I’m an EIR at a VC firm”, i told them ‘I”m helping people make money through enjoyment.”  While it looked like a baby step, it felt like a REALLY big step for me at the time, even though I was excited to do it!

Here’s a more general example on why baby steps are so important and powerful.  For example, you might want to start a blog, and it could feel like a really big project.  Questions and concerns start coming up, “What will I write about?”, “How often do I need to post?”, “What does it need to look like?”, “Who will read it?”, “What will they think?”, and so on.  All these questions can conspire to make the blog feel “too big” - and it never gets created.   

What if you just took a single baby step: to list out 10 possible names for your blog.  Or list 5-10 things you would enjoy writing about.  A great baby step would be to go to www.WordPress.com and create your first blog in less than 30 seconds - but then not post anything.  Save that for another day.  

You can’t take a baby step that is too small.  If you’re stuck on what to write about on your blog, instead write out a list of 5-10 blog topics is too much, just pull out a piece of paper and a pen and write “What I’d want to write about” at the top, and then put the paper away.  If “writing” feels like too big a step, try “Quotes I’d like to share with people”, or “Other Bloggers I’d like to share”.  You don’t have to start a blog by doing all your own writing.  You can share content that you enjoy from other people as a way to get started and ‘warm up’!  (By the way, I know this great blog that you can borrow from and share with people called PebbleStorm.  You should check it out :) )

The problem with big steps is that our mind and habits don’t change that way.  Ultimately our success in getting and enjoying what we want depends on creating new habits.  Our habits are a big determiner of our life.  When we can change our habits, our life changes, and we can make more money or feel more fulfilment.  Baby steps are more inline with how we retrain our mind with supportive habits.  For lasting results, it’s better to take small steps every day for a month, than one big leap one day and then nothing.

Baby steps work when there is consistency: when you take them every day, or every week, or every month - whatever rhythm works for you where you are right now.  You must take at least one baby step each month to keep moving forward and feeling some progress.  

If you can’t take a single baby step per month - and remember a baby step can take just a few minutes to imagine and complete - then it’s a sign that you aren’t working on the “right” thing for you, or your environment is ‘dirty’ and need cleaning.  Either your physical space like an office desk, your mental space such as how busy and overwhelmed your mind feels, or your “people space” - the people you spend time with.  

Recommended Book For More: “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way”