How I Navigate Life: The Baby Step Method

In the 1991 comedy What About Bob?, Bob (Bill Murray), an obsessive-compulsive neurotic, drives the successful psychologist Leo Marvin (Richard Dreyfuss) absolutely bonkers! It’s a rather humorous film that I can watch over and over again. 

I think about What About Bob? often because of one particular scene. Bob has a rough time leaving his house, so going to visit his therapist is quite the ordeal. But the doctor has a solution: baby steps. Dr. Marvin hands Bob a book that he wrote entitled “Baby Steps” and, before Bob has a chance to read it, he’s blown away at the possibility that this way of thinking can change his life. He begins baby stepping around the office, shuffling forward inch by inch, and even makes his way out the office door. Something that would normally have caused him a great deal of difficulty was done easily when taking the little baby steps. And I feel like life is very much the same way.

We often feel like we have to take big leaps.
But we’re just called to take baby steps.

I think that our next steps in life are just like Bob’s baby steps. It’s amazing how taking one little baby step every day can amount to a huge amount of progress.

What’s your baby step for today?

I encourage you to spend some time sitting in silence with the Lord today and ask him what today’s step is. It’s amazing how he can speak so clearly when we give him the space to do so.

It might be to call or text that friend who has been on your mind.
It might be tithing for the first time in years.
It might be opening up your Bible though you’re hurting.
It might be raising your hand and asking for help from someone you trust.
Or it might be something else entirely different.

No matter what today’s baby step is, I encourage you to take it. Don’t feel like you need to do all the things right now, just start with one and then see what happens. If, after you’ve taken the one step, you still feel ready and excited to take another, then go for it. But, if one baby step is all that you can take today, that’s wonderful and you should celebrate that! Then, come back again tomorrow and take another baby step, repeating the process over and over and over again.

If at any point you fail or fall or misstep or mess up, that’s okay, just get back up and start again the next day. And remember that we’re all here with you, cheering for you, on the good days and the bad.  

To go Deeper: Read In Desperate Need of an Answer, Follow the Cloud