Short Choppy Steps

14 Years later and I still do this.

In Basic Military training we learned about something called “short choppy steps.”

This action repeated dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of times can take us to places that are unrecognizable.

Sure, it might seem ridiculous at first, to an outsider or a “non-choppy steps taker”, but once you realize the efficiency of short choppy steps…you may never go back.

Now, what is it about the short choppy steps that I am trying to share with you? I’m looking to remind you of something you have already known, quite possibly for years.

Small, short, tiny, minuscule movements toward the bigger goal will always lead us to a place where we can succeed. A place where small adjustments over time get us exactly where we need to be.

Remember these:

• Short choppy steps allow us to always make progress. Every time a little choppy step is taken you are moving in the right direction. Every time we wake up and build better habits we start to notice, over time, large gains.

• Short choppy steps mean that we limit our crashing into each other. Every person has a role, every person has a path and we can reduce this friction by taking small steps.

• Choppy steps create trust among team members. Every team member knows that others are working towards the same goal as we line ourselves up. During Basic Military Training these tiny steps were taken in conjunction with each other trusting everyone would land at the spot they needed to be.

Short choppy steps can get us there

So, what’s the catch?

Role definition. We have to define our roles and fulfill them.

Once we define these roles… let’s reach back to a time when we were all just “starting out” and use our short choppy steps to get where we need to go.

Photo by Filip Andrejevic on Unsplash