Take Little Leaps

We all admire the Big Leaps. Quitting your job to sail around the world. Going 100% Vegan all at once. Getting off the couch and running a marathon.

Even in business, the Big Leaps are the ones that get all the press. Self driving cars, Uber and AirBnb and the like. Or quitting your job to make bean to bar chocolate. (I've noticed that lots of these involve quitting your job.)

But I'm a fan of the little leaps. Small steps. The next small stretch.

I started my podcast just over a year ago. It was a series of little leaps that felt really Big at the time.

• get up the nerve to invite friends to be guests

• get up the nerve to invite strangers to be guests

• slowly, slowly, make the sound better

• slowly, slowly, get more comfortable talking

• rent a portable recorder for in person interviews

• try a 'live' in the car episode

• slowly, slowly, start spreading the word on Instagram

• try a solo episode

• buy a portable recorder

• get up the nerve to invite some more 'famous' guests

• attend a conference as a "podcaster/baker" (that's next week)

Each was a slow, incremental step. Looking back, they seem easy but each step seemed incredibly difficult at the time.

But you know what? All those Big Leaps I mentioned above were, in reality, a series of little leaps too.

My friend Margo reminded me that it took five years for Facebook to add a 'like' button. Five years! Amazon didn't rule the world when they were an online bookstore. And AirBnb struggled mightily until they decided to focus on helping their hosts be successful.

Since I'm a flawed human, I still want to make my next step a Big Leap. But that's when I get stuck and fear wins out and I talk myself out of moving at all. Much better to take a little leap. Then another.

That marathon might never happen, but I don't care. I'm starting with a walk around the block.