Making Progress When You Feel Stuck: My Baby-Step Method

Sometimes life throws a perfect storm at you — deadlines, responsibilities, and a body or brain that just won’t cooperate. It’s tempting to shut down or beat yourself up. But over the past few months I’ve discovered that the smallest, simplest actions can carry you through the hardest moments.

Personal Story
Earlier this summer, in the middle of my parenting class, I got COVID. The fever and brain fog meant I couldn’t concentrate, but my assignments were still due. For the first time ever, I asked my professor for an extension and gave myself permission to move slowly.

Then I broke my papers into tiny steps: rubric items became headings, spaces for citations went in, title page created. One question at a time. Even in brain fog, the structure held me.

You may not be writing academic papers, but you probably have a project, a change, or a feeling that seems too big. Where in your life right now does everything feel like “too much”? And if you zoomed in, what would the smallest, simplest first step look like for you?

Three Practices for Moving Forward

1. Chunk it down. Replace the giant to-do with a checklist of micro-steps.

2. Reset your body first. Bilateral tapping, a short round of Faster EFT, or breathing out twice as long calms your nervous system so focus comes easier.

3. Allow wobble. Like toddlers learning to walk, every fall is building your capacity. Don’t sabotage your own first steps.

You don’t have to do this alone. I teach nervous-system resets and step-by-step practices inside my Feeling Better App, and I also work with people one-on-one. If you’re curious, book a free 20-minute chat here and let’s find your next small step together.