Gentle pushes

Have you ever pushed yourself so far out of your comfort zone that you've scuttled back in and stayed stuck for ages?

Think about something you want to accomplish. It might be to do with work, a relationship, a long held (but potentially buried) dream...?

How can you break it down into steps so manageable you'll want to get started right away? Say, for example, your goal was to start a successful new business, initial steps might include:

• getting in touch with your local business link to find out about available resources
• finding out about similar businesses in your area
• figuring out what would make your product or service different and better
• perfecting your product or service with practice / extra training etc.
• reading about business and your chosen industry

Depending on how long you've been thinking about your own dream, you'll be at different stages. For some people, choosing a business related book from their local library and checking it out might feel quite daunting as they'd not dared admit, even to themselves, that this is something that they want to do.

For others, they might leap straight in with market research and business plans.

Know yourself and work with, rather than against, your personalility. For long term progress, you're much better off taking small, regular steps in the right direction that leaping too far too fast and scaring yourself back into old habits.

Whether your goal is to launch a business, write a book, start dating again or lose weight, break it down, take it slow and be kind to yourself.

© Eve Menezes Cunningham / www.applecoaching.com 2008.