“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Neil Armstrong
Everyone probably recognises that quote by Neil Armstrong when he stepped onto the moon in 1969. I believe he misjudged when he called it a small step. To me, that was a monumental leap.
I know what small steps look and they don’t include things like stepping onto the moon. As everyone who lives with chronic pain knows, small steps need to be taken all the time. That’s life for us.
We Need to Take One Small Step at a Time
One of the most frustrating aspects of chronic pain is the inability to accomplish what we really desire. Even the simplest of tasks like washing the dishes or making a simple meal, often need to be broken down into small steps. And, even then, those small steps can feel impossible.
But, for us, those small steps really are a giant leap forward so we ought to congratulate ourselves. But instead of doing that, we tend to berate ourselves. We judge ourselves. We put pressure on ourselves to do more than we are capable of. That pressure turns to stress, frustration, anger and guilt. We shouldn’t do that to ourselves because those emotions will always make our pain worse.
Read more about stress and guilt:
How Stress Affects Pain and How to Cope With It
Living Life, One Small Step at a Time
If we could accept that we need to do everything in small steps, perhaps life could be better. It’s not easy though, is it? Our brains seem to be hard-wired to scold ourselves for not being good enough. Perhaps we need to do some rewiring…
Rewiring Our Brains
Accept
Acceptance is difficult. It’s a long road with twists and turns and, very often, we must take the same journey repeatedly. But with acceptance comes a better understanding of our bodies and what they’re capable of.
Please read my post about
Accepting a New Normal
What’s Achievable?
When we know what we’re capable of, we can move forward. Remember that we don’t need to aim for the stars. Life’s not a competition. If we set goals that are too far away, we won’t achieve them and then we’ll get annoyed with ourselves even more. So we need to be careful to only set achievable goals.
Small Steps
We need to break every task into manageable steps. That means every task…dressing, hobbies, housework or exercise. If we can pace ourselves, we can accomplish more. We need to stop before the pain stops us. And we need to take rest breaks. Rests are compulsory when living with pain so we need to stop berating ourselves for taking a break.
Learn more about
Pacing Yourself
Focus
We should focus on the end result, not on how long it takes to get there.
Encouragement
Nobody knows how much of an effort we’ve made more than ourselves so we need to learn to be our own cheerleaders. We have to encourage ourselves throughout our lives.
Celebrate
When we accomplish what once seemed impossible, we have every right to celebrate
Small Steps Lead to Bigger Things
I have watched my nieces and nephews grow from babies into toddlers desperate to find their feet. They tentatively put one foot in front of the other, fell down, got back up and kept trying. They were resilient. Eventually, their efforts paid off. They took one small step, followed by another, and then another. Then there was no stopping them. Their tiny steps lead to bigger things (including a whole lot of mischief!)
I remember the looks on their faces – concentration and determination. Then there were huge smiles and laughter when they succeeded in taking their first few steps. Rightly so, they were proud of themselves.
Congratulate Yourself for Every Small Step
Pride is something that people with chronic pain often forget to have in themselves.
So for every little step you take today, congratulate yourself. Each small step is a step forward but I know that each of those steps takes a tremendous amount of effort from you.
So be proud.
Be very proud.
Thank you so much for reading.
If this post resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
And feel free to share it with your friends or support groups.
Take care,
Liz.
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Every step counts
Armstrong’s was a pretty giant step, wasn’t it? It’s all relative but our human steps can’t be compared from one person to the next because we’re all unique, as are our situations. For those with chronic conditions, those steps may be tiny but they can be mighty because of the cost involved.
I loved reading your post about the small steps because it makes me feel better about my own. It’s easy to get disappointed and frustrated with yourself because you’re not “doing enough”, or to compare yourself to others and what your life “should” look like, and find you never measure up. It’s not realistic, it’s not helpful and it’s not accurate. But it doesn’t stop us doing it and feeling awful. You’re absolutely right in saying how we can berate and judge ourselves, and that causes another cycle that’s hard to stop. We don’t need that on top of everything else.
Celebrating is a good point. I’m trying to do that a little more, because I’ve very much got into a bit of a mess with feeling it’s never enough. “I’ll celebrate when I just finish the next dozen things…” If we take those small steps, make them more manageable and aligned with our needs and abilities, then celebrate attempting them (whatever the outcome) we could feel a lot better in ourselves.
I love that you’ve compared your nieces and nephews to those little steps that can grow our confidence and lead us to bigger things. I’d like a little more mischief in my life! 😉
Next stop… The mooooooon! xxxx
Oh, I think we could all use a little more mischief in our lives.
I’m guilty of pushing too hard as well and feeling as though I’m not doing enough. But we both know what pushing too hard does. So yes, we need to take small steps and celebrate every single one of them.
Thanks for your comment, Caz. I hope you’re doing ok. I know you’re having a tough time just now. x