The Power Of Small Steps

It’s been a purple patch for gigging this last fortnight.

First Johnny Marr entertained us with a ringside view in Pryzm nightclub in Kingston. We were so close to the stage that I’ve been able to rewatch the footage I took and change how I play some of his songs. It was like having a private lesson!

Then last Friday the mighty Ride stormed through their criminally unknown debut album Nowhere, celebrating its thirtieth anniversary at the beautiful Roundhouse in Camden. Due to the pandemic restrictions things got delayed slightly and the album is actually now thirty two years old. It didn’t seem to matter.

Finally this week it’s been the turn of Inhaler, Ireland’s best new band. My mate Keith and I saw them at the Lucerna Music Bar just off Wenceslas Square in Prague.

Prague!? That’s a step change from Kingston and Camden right?

One Step Beyond

This week I’m talking about generating momentum and the transformative power of taking a really small step. Just to get things going.

You see, we first saw Inhaler back in August 21 and thoroughly enjoyed the gig. So we saw them again in October. Again it was a fabulous gig. 

At my age you don’t fall for new bands that often. I’m very happy to be stuck with a few classic groups that tour as heritage acts and churn out a few solid tunes once every five years or so.

My kids provide sprinklings of Post Malone, The Weeknd and Billy Eilish etc - enough new stuff played loudly through the walls - for me to be aware of the new breeds. I feel pretty current and up to date. As far as I want to be anyway. Plus Johnny Marr worked with Billy Eilish on the latest Bond tune so she must be okay.

To fall for the melodic delights and rock posings of new boys Inhaler is a bonus. A few weeks after the October gig Keith called me up. He’s a cultured chap, or so he tells me, and wanted to talk about the delights of Bohemia, specifically Prague, the City of a Hundred Spires.

We’d noticed that Inhaler were slated to play there and Keith was now seriously mooting the idea of travelling to see them.

While he chatted excitedly about what else we could do in the city I had one of those "Ah, sod it!" moments.

I browsed the Inhaler website. I followed the link to the gig and purposefully, with very little thought, booked two tickets there and then.

Keith came to the end of his Czech Republic sales pitch and said “So, what do you think? Would you be up for going to the Prague gig? We don’t have to commit now but it’s an idea isn’t it?”

Me: “We have to go. We’ve already got the tickets booked!”

You Gotta Make It Happen

That’s this week’s top tip - to just take action. Press the buy button and make an idea into a reality. Force your own hand into making something come true.

We had nothing else planned, no flights, no transfers, no accommodation, nothing. Just the tickets.

But that’s enough. Here’s the thing about generating momentum. You don’t need everything in place to make things happen. You just need one single first step.

There’s a concept in Time Management known as Ready, Fire, Aim. The idea is that you start before you’re ready. You shoot the bullet and then once it’s been fired that’s when you make adjustments, that’s when you adapt the trajectory and respond to the live situation.

Too many opportunities are lost when the traditional model of Ready, Aim, Fire is used. That’s because people spend too long on the Aim section. The reality is that too often Fire never happens. People don’t pull the trigger because they’re never quite ready.

Buying our Inhaler tickets with nothing else in place was a Ready, Fire, Aim moment. Okay, I’m making it sound a bigger decision than it was. It was an easy decision really. The tickets were £14 each so I wasn’t going to break the bank if other factors meant we couldn’t go in the end. 

Take A Chance On Me

It was a £14 bet.

A £14 gamble.

It was spending £14 to get things going.

It was a nudge to make it real. To make it a concrete event. That’s the point about a small step having a transformative power.

The bullet had been fired. Now the bullet had left the chamber we could go about booking EasyJet, checking AirBnB and sorting out transfers. That turned into planning a few bike rides for a cheeky couple of days after the gig. Once that first step had been taken we could continue generating momentum. 

Breaking actions down for an event like this into lots of small steps also has the effect of reducing friction. Like cost for example. 

Because I’ve paid out in bits and bats - the ticket here, the flight there, then we’ll only pay for the accommodation when we’re in the country - it hasn’t felt like paying out a large amount all at once. 

This piecemeal approach makes the whole event much more acceptable on a number of levels.

I’m all for that willing self delusion and conscious obfuscation. I don’t want to be made aware of the full price the trip will cost me in advance.  

Budgets have their time and place but for this impromptu treat to myself knowing the full price might be a blocker and act as a reason not to do it. I’ll work that out later when it’s already happened! 

Getting the trip started was only £14 - wilful self delusion!

Are You Experienced?

As a family (me and my wife not me and Keith) we took a decision a few years ago to focus more on events than on material goods. 

The reason is that experiences tend to increase in value over the years - you edit them in your mind to exaggerate and polish the best bits, whilst also tending to ignore and forget the dull bits, like a long train journey home.

Conversely the material items that you coveted for so long very soon become old and even obsolete, quickly usurped by the latest model. 

Take a shiny new mobile phone for example. Phones lose their shine and their actual value very quickly. Sometimes you can end up actually resenting material items. Especially if you’ve smashed the screen and you’re still paying out on a contract for example.

Anyway, that experience vs material object concept is another reason why I’m happy enough to pull the trigger and force an event into being.

So take a moment over this coming weekend and think about some of your favourite events from the past. Especially any experiences that were brilliant yet you were hesitating to commit to. 

When can you next pull the trigger before you’re ready? What’s that first small step you could take? Enjoy daydreaming about where it could lead. 

Happily enough by the time you’re reading this I’ll be following Keith’s lead on two wheels. He’s promised his map plotting skills will lead us to a well deserved lunch at a Czech brewery in the countryside. What a great experience. Naz dravi!