[11/12/11] Baby step. Breathe. Repeat.

I tend to get a little freaked out sometimes. Especially where school is concerned.

I'll read the syllabus for a new class and start to feel those "freaking out" feelings. I forget that, during the course of the class, I will be taught how to do what I'll need to do. I don't need to know how to do everything from day one. If I knew that, I wouldn't be taking the class.

I know. It sounds silly.

Monday I registered for the Winter Semester. I'm taking a Natural Disasters class (not worried about that one), and  Eng 314: Advanced Research and Literary Analysis. That title, alone, causes some mild "freaking out" feelings.

This is the part of the syllabus that causes some major "freaking out" feelings (as opposed to minor ones):

 

Yeah. 

Sounds pretty scary, huh?

A valid reason for freaking out, if you ask me. Three (3!) major papers, along with other pretty major stuff.

Then I have to remind myself that I have felt these same feelings at the beginning of every single English class I've taken.

And everything has always turned out A-OK.

The key is taking baby steps. One baby step leads to another and another. Breathing in between baby steps is always helpful too.

I think this Baby step. Breathe. Repeat. pattern can be applied to other things too. When I have something major to do, it's easy to get overwhelmed and think only of the "something major" as one big, scary thing. But when I can break the "something major" into smaller baby steps, and then take only one baby step at a time (remembering to breathe in between), suddenly the "something major" doesn't seem so scary anymore.

I've also found that there is help all along the way. Someone or something always comes along that helps me with the "something major" that I have to do.

Tender mercy, for sure.

I also think that sometimes the hardest part about accomplishing "something major" is simply getting started. When I can just get started on one baby step, even if it's a very tiny one, it's amazing how that one baby step leads to another, and before I know it, the "something major" is done. Complete. Finished.

And that is the best feeling.