I knew she knew...

She knew how to stay! Yet, as soon as I moved, so did she. Why?

The other week in dog training for our lab puppy, Chloe, we were going to be working on the "stay" command.

I was really looking forward to it, because I knew she knew how to do it, yet she just didn't seem to want to listen.

What was it that I was missing? Was my puppy just that stubborn?

I share the story, and how it "coached" me in life and business as well, on this week's UNSCRIPTED. You can catch the replay on YouTube:

or the Podcast version here.

For those who prefer the cliff notes, I'm going to offer them here as this is a valuable lesson.

There are three D's in dog training. Duration, Distance, Distraction. These are things you need to work up to when training your pup.

What I had been doing was expecting my puppy to sit and stay while I had food in my hand (distraction) that I was bringing to our other dog in the other room (duration and distance).

No wonder she followed me! I'd say forget the stay as well, I don't want to wait for my food, I want to get what he's getting... now!

In class, we were taught how to start small. Baby steps! Literally having her stay for a half second, while I take a half a step away, then say "good stay!" and give her a treat. You slooooooowly work up the three D's.

This got me curious. How often in life do we feel we should do better, know better, or be somewhere further because we "know" something?

When are the moments you don't give yourself the grace of "baby steps" by pressuring yourself to leap beyond where you are?

Perhaps you have done the inner work, yet someone triggers you, and you find yourself reacting and not using all your "tools" you know.

Perhaps you know what you need to do to grow your business, yet the results didn't come in yet and you wonder why you're not further?

You don't just know how to run a mile, and then expect to run a marathon. 

It's baby steps. Consistent baby steps. It's patience. And it's rewarding and celebrating each little step. "Good stay! Here's your treat."

Whenever you find yourself frustrated that what you "know" isn't getting you further than you believe you should be, I invite you to take a moment and see how far you've truly come, and to keep taking those baby steps.

One step at a time. You've got this!