One Small Step, Fifteen Moves Forward
Before 9am, I took one small step—and fifteen more followed, almost by accident. This post is about that feeling, that phrase, and how a big project I’ve been working on—a book for Travel Entrepreneurs focused on mindset and micro-moves—quietly rewired what felt possible in both my business and my life.
Waking Up Accomplished
This morning started with a rare feeling: genuine completion. I wrapped the final draft of this book—a project that’s lived in my head, my notes app, and countless coffee cups for months. (No, it’s not available yet, and yes, I’ll talk about it more when the time is right.) For now, just finishing the draft feels like a win worth celebrating.
Maintenance, Espresso, and a 90-Minute Delay
Riding that accomplished high, I did what any reasonable person who’s been in deep work mode for too long would do: I tried to take care of actual life. I planned a workout, booked time to get my nails done, and headed to the kitchen to make eggs. On the way, I grabbed my phone "just to put a workout on" and immediately fell into a classic rabbit hole—this time, discovering you can do a hearing test on your phone and, obviously, taking it.
The good news: my hearing is great. The bad news: the 30-minute workout I’d planned got buried under 90 minutes of very official-looking procrastination. By the time I came up for air, I felt that familiar mix of “I’m late” and “I just lost the plot of my own day.”
Tikka, Tiny Wins, and One Small Step
Somewhere between the hearing test, the espresso (mandatory), and my internal negotiation about whether I "really" needed to work out, a simple mantra cut through the noise:
One small step.
Not “crush the workout.” Not “transform your life today.” Just: start. Do five minutes. Do one set. If you really hate it, you can stop.
That tiny reframe matters more than it looks. When you break a big, important thing into a small, doable action, your brain stops treating it like a mountain and starts treating it like something you can just… begin. Research on habit formation and micro-habits backs this up: small, easy actions reduce the mental friction to start, and each completed step gives your brain a little hit of reward that makes the next step easier.
So I started. I put on the workout. Tikka, my pup, decided this was her cue to “help,” turning push-ups into a comedy routine. But the workout got done. Not perfectly. Not Instagram-worthy. Just done. And that was enough to change the temperature of the whole day.
The Omnidirectional Assault
Once I finished, something interesting happened. I noticed the same resistance rising when I moved to the next thing on my list. New task, same script:
“This will take forever.”
“I don’t have the energy.”
“I’ll do it later.”
So I reused the mantra: one small step. Not “finish the project,” just “start one component.”
Send one email.
Open one form.
Answer one question.
These micro-habits—tiny actions that feel easy but create momentum—are the foundation of my Phenomenal Force philosophy. Once you start, your brain shifts from avoidance into motion, and motion is easier to continue than to begin.
In real time, here’s what that looked like:
I sent the emails I’d been sitting on.
I completed my open enrollment.
I nudged one more project forward.
I drafted (and now finished) this blog.
One small step turned into an almost omnidirectional assault on the pile of “later.” I didn’t become a different person today. I just took about fifteen more steps than I would have if I’d stayed stuck at the starting line.
A Book for Travel Entrepreneurs (and for Me)
This is exactly the kind of day that book is built on—not theory, not perfection, but the real, human dance between ambition and avoidance. In Travel Entrepreneur language, “one small step” might look like:
Finally sending the follow-up you’ve been avoiding.
Raising your fees by 5%.
Documenting one process instead of “systematizing everything.”
Recording your first piece of thought-leadership content, even if your lighting isn’t perfect.
The psychology is the same for all of us: when you shrink the starting line, you make action less intimidating and more sustainable. Those small, consistent steps don’t feel dramatic, but they compound into big, meaningful change in both business performance and personal wellbeing.
Your Phenomenal Force, One Step at a Time
Today wasn’t about chasing a highlight reel. It was about finding my Phenomenal Force in the smallest, most ordinary actions. That’s the heart of the book I’m writing, and honestly, it’s the heart of every day that actually moves me forward.
What’s one small step you could take today—just to see what follows? I’d love to hear how it goes. Drop a comment or send me a note. We’re all in this together, one micro-move at a time.
