#607: Where Tiny Steps Can Lead

You've got to look at those places where you haven't made tiny shifts in a long time. It's like an earthquake, right? I live in California, and we know that the plates around here have to be shifting in a tiny way constantly. Hundreds of teensy, tiny seismic events, and. And we look forward to those, because when those stop happening, that's when we get in trouble. That's when the big shift comes. The big change comes, which, frankly, in our own lives, that's what most of us are worried about. So how do we get there? How do we get into brand new, beautiful, open spaces in our hearts and our lives and our businesses without having these huge decisions to make these huge shifts, these huge corners to turn? Well, we start with little tiny steps. Flow Dreaming. It's a show where we talk about the power of your mind to change your world around you, to literally affect the fabric of your reality. We talk about this feeling of hope and joy and relief, and that is what being aware of your flow does. It gives you a feeling of power again in your lives. Breathe. I'm Summer McStravik, and welcome to another episode of Flow Dreaming. Hey, Everybody, it's Summer McStravik here, and thank you for joining me for another episode here of Flow Dreaming, where we look inside your heart, your mind, your energy, your emotion. We put your life into flow and alignment. For any of you who are new to this show, yes, Flow Dreaming is a gorgeous, beautiful technique for changing yourself from the inside out. It's different than meditation. It's not self hypnosis. It really is a modality that helps you get into an emotional state of being. Stay there, vibrate there, become that feel where you're going, and then allowing life to figure out ways to get you to that feeling space. So along those same lines, after having done so many hundreds of episodes, I have sort of been turning this whole podcast, Flow Dreaming, in the direction this year where we're talking about other spaces and ways that we can use our mind and our energy to create and be more effective. And this dovetails in with another area that has really been opening up for me. I'm so excited to share with you guys about it, the world of making things, of being a maker. And what you'll see coming out soon is a new podcast called Born to Make, as well as a new program, a course called Born to Make, and a membership called the Makers. And it's going to be a beautiful folding in of all of you who've been through me school, all of you who are Flow Dreamers and co creators and law of attraction, followers and mindset, followers and coaches and personal growth, all of you, along with those of you who get your hands dirty in the ground building businesses and being entrepreneurs and making things. Because ultimately I've realized that's kind of the next phase for me, the next step. We make things. I make things. My whole life has been exploring different ways to hold content, different ways to share content, whether this is energetic content or physical content, meaning a book, a course, a podcast, a empire, a business. So it's all coming together in this beautiful new group and membership. So keep an eye out for it. But in that same vein, this show will continue to focus on consciousness, on emotion, on co creating from the energetic aspect or side of things. And that's why, as we talk about tiny steps today, we're going to take a look at it from the side of, of course, energy and emotion. So, for instance, with an earthquake, I think I already let you hear a little snippet of this idea. But here in California, with an earthquake, we need those tiny little shivers to let the plates move a bit at a time. And when that's happening, we're all safe because the world is getting to move, grow, be fluid, organic. And that's how our lives are flowing, moving, organic, changing. It's only when we start to cling on, hold on, you know, hanging by your fingertips kind of situation where we notice that, oh, I haven't been going with the flow here. And sometimes you're not going with the flow because you're in a whole big stew of resistance. Sometimes you're not going with the flow because you don't want something to change, even though it's changing around you. Now, the true masters of creation, the people who ride these waves like a cowboy on a racing horse, well, these are the people who have mastered whole swaths of their lives. The people we look at and say, how did you do that? And that fascinates me when I see people and I think, how did you do that? Well, I know that they didn't just go out one day and say, I'm going to make an earthquake happen. Now, some people do. And they said, I quit my job, I sold my house, I moved into my camper, and I did nothing but this business for three years. But that's not what most people do. Most of us are busy getting along, living. So we take a different route. A route that's not as quick, perhaps, but it's also not as cataclysmic. It's the route of Tiny steps. It's the route of tiny movements, of little shifts, bit by bit, little choices, day by day, one by one. It's the difference between the person who wins the million dollars in the casino, you know, by, you know, pulling the handle of the machine, versus the person who has saved up a dollar a day for the last 10 years. Now. Which one do you think is more reliable? Probably the dollar a day. Is it slower? Mm, perhaps. Is it sure? Yes. Why? Because everything requires a foundation. The stronger your foundation, the more bricks in your building, the more you're able to count on it and feel good about it and know it's going to be there for you. I'm a huge fan of tiny steps. Can you tell? And I run my life largely based on tiny steps punctuated by medium sized steps and occasionally big jumps. But these big jumps are built on a mountain of tiny, tiny steps. Key here that I want you all to be thinking about is what tiny steps have you taken? Which ones are you taking? How often are you taking them? Are you doing them day by day? So when I'm working with a client and in my private practice with my high end clients and my me schoolers, we're always looking into their lives. What are you making? Where is it going? How are you creating this? What's getting in your way? What energy, what emotion are you utilizing? All of your resources, both non physical and physical. Right. We canvas their lives and what we often come up with is, I have these big goals, big dreams, big hoops, but I'm afraid to jump through them all at once. And I'm like, I hear you, babe. I totally, that's me too. And they say, well, how can I jump through a little at a time? I mean, you either jump or don't jump, right? Like, no, no, no. The very first thing you do is you set up the energy conditions for the jump. You practice inside yourself. This is who I am, this is how I feel. Imagine the person who is practicing. I know I often use this idea, but you know, their golf game or their Olympic sport or whatever, they don't say, I'm doing the triple, quadruple, duple, duple, let's see thing right now. No, they say, I am going to learn to ice skate. Okay, how do I lace up the shoes correctly? That's the tiny step. That's the first step and then the next, and then the next, and then the next. The key in your flow is consistency. Small bites consistently. Now, what happens when you start growing these small bites? A little spoonful of Imagine you're taking a little spoonful of sand and you're piling it up one spoonful at a time. You eventually are going to have a lot of sand there. A beautiful sandcastle could take shape. And that's when the bigger opportunities start shifting their way in. You never want to just sit there like the person at the jackpot saying, hey, it's all just going to happen now. It'll happen or it won't happen. That's it. That's despite the fact that I just released a new flow dream called Winner's Mindset. It's a whole different concept, whole different idea. You want to be the person sitting on all the tiny steps that you've built. So where when that natural next level comes along, you've got the foundation laid. I mean, it's ready, you know, build that next floor, it's down, it's ready for you. And then the bigger shift can occur and settle elegantly, perfectly on top of what you've built. All those people that you see out there, and I work with all of you who are building things, building businesses, building your own entrepreneurship, building all kinds of stuff, building your careers, you're looking at it from the perspective often of, look where that person is. Oh, my God, they're so far ahead of me. You know, she's happily married. She's got three kids. They're traveling to Portugal every summer. God, I don't even have a boyfriend yet, you know, and I'm 43, and I haven't had a baby, and I'm not traveling, and I'm not. How will I ever get there? Tiny steps. You can't compare yourself to that other person who's already been through their series of tiny steps in just that particular area. You probably chose a different area to experiment with your tiny steps. Well, now you're choosing this area, and you're starting the journey. So a tiny step is a step that feels effortless. It's a step that feels like there's a little bit of risk, but not very much. It's. I want to open my own food truck, and I love to cook, and I've been cooking more and I've been experimenting. And there was this online class about how to have your own food truck. So I took that class. And then I realized that I didn't know anything about accounting. So I got myself, you know, into an accounting class at my community college. And then I started Next Tiny Step scouring, you know, the, you know, the online ads for food trucks for sale. Next Tiny Step I started talking with friends. Gosh, you know, who would I hire? Would I have to work it myself? Next tiny step. Next tiny step. I started putting away 100 bucks a month so I could buy this thing. Next tiny step. You see, eventually you have the food truck. You have the food truck. You're on. From there, you go into another series of tiny steps. Well, where's my route and who are my customers? And which recipes do they like best and which is the best time to show up at different places? And, oh, my gosh, now I'm getting really full and I'm making a profit, and it's time to get another food truck and expand my fleet. Now, you've gone from a person who had an idea because you really like to cook and you've been making some great stuff at home to a person with multiple employees and multiple vehicles running a company through a series of tiny little steps. And some of those tiny steps will be steps back. You know that it's an old saying, that's great. Don't do that. Don't put your. Park your food truck there. Don't offer that kind of food. Don't do these things because they don't work. And every time you find something that doesn't work, you say, thank you, God. Thank you, flow. Thank you, Source. I'm so glad to know what doesn't work, because I don't want to spend my time wasted on that. So these tiny steps are what? Take this person now who's got multiple food trucks in the city who says, hey, I just met some other food truck owners, this bigger place, and they own a couple of breweries, and they want me to come and partner with them and. And can I get my food trucks at multiple breweries? And I need more trucks. And then I met some other owners, and they're like, franchising. So I'm learning how to franchise now. And now I'm going to have some food trucks in multiple cities all through Southern California. And how did you get to that? What feels like suddenly a big leap, that bigger level? Well, because you got to the bigger level where all the bigger level stuff happens, where, you know, other franchise owners, where, you know, people who are running big companies now and, you know, taking things to the next scale in what they're doing. But you had to build to that on these tiny steps before you reach that level. And then you begin a new series of buildings based on more tiny steps. It just looks like a leap from the outside, but when you're actually inside the thick of It. It's not. Sometimes you take a conscious big leap. A big investment, a big risk, a big, I haven't done this before. A big, this could really bite me if this goes south. Right? If we're talking about scaling up and getting to the next level, certain things in your life, you know, this is the, I'm going to quit my job before I have a new job. That's the big leap. Yes, you can do that. But you know what? It's only going to feel comfortable if you've built the tiny steps to get there. If you say, I'm quitting my job, but I have 15 interviews lined up this week and I already have one proposal on the table, your tiny steps have made this big leap. Not so big seeming. It is big, but not as much. If you fail, all the tiny steps. If you don't make the minor adjustments, maybe again, I'm going to use the job thing again. Maybe you're sitting at work right now and you're feeling like, I hate this. Doesn't fit me anymore. Ugh. I'm just going to get through it, deal with it tomorrow. By the way, listen to episode 606 about procrastination. That was last week. But if you're sitting there feeling like this, what you're recognizing is shifts are going on around with me, around me. But I am not adjusting to the shifts. I'm avoiding them. I'm not looking at them, I'm plugging my ears. Da, da, da, da. This isn't really happening. So the tiny shifts are happening all around you, but you're closing your eyes and your ears to them. So when the bigger shift happens and the company closes or you lose your job or whatever it is, you say, oh, my God, this is huge. Not really. All the tiny shifts were there. So I want to leave you with one exercise today. As you look at your life and you think, how do I make tiny shifts work for me? Because that's the headspace I want you in. That's the emotional space, the flow space. I want you to go into your flow and say, I love all the tiny adjustments. All the tiny adjustments feel really good around me right now. I'm referring to a concept called Flow Dreaming. If you don't know it, be sure to go to my website, grab the free kit. You can download it or you can open up my Flow Dreaming app and it will be right there in the My Files section for you. But this teaches you how to emotionally energetically program your flow Program your life feels a little bit like Meditation, but it's not. It's about your emotion and inner power and energy. So what I want you to be doing right now is going into your flow and feeling like, I love my tiny shifts. I want more of them. I want spoon sized changes. I want tiny things that I can handle, that I like, that feel good, that make sense. And I'm going to listen to them and I'm going to respond to them because they're all at a level that fit me perfectly. They don't scare me, they don't feel too big, they don't feel too little. You know, it's Goldilocks, they're just right. Everything I want to build can be built on those. I really want you to hear that. Everything you want to build can be built on those. Let go of that old concept in your head that only the big, fancy, powerful people, they strike the big deals. They go big, their books go big, big. They get all the money, they have the best families, they're the ones with the best Instagram feeds. Let that go. Half the time those are just illusions, they're fronts. The other half the time, those people have made a lot of tiny shifts and they have built. And when they built enough tiny shifts and the moment was ripe, that bigger plateau opened for them based on what they'd built. And again, it didn't seem like a big plateau. It just seemed like, oh, the natural next level, here I am. Oh, and there's a bunch of more tiny shifts ahead of me. I think when you look at your life that way and the things that you're trying to make or build, it makes a lot more sense. It starts to feel like, I can handle this and of course I can do this. It's not just other people do, it's I do it too. And you can utilize your flow for this. You can utilize your emotional, energetic self. Go into the practice, do the technique around this. Feel yourself ahead of time making the tiny shifts. Go into flow and feel it. In fact, I'm going to give you a playlist recommendation. It's called my Flowing Easy Life playlist. Go to flowdreaming.com or open up the Flow Dreaming Shop app again. It's on the iTunes shop or Google Play and begin practicing. You can prepare your energy. It's like a farmer preparing the soil to plant in. If you don't prepare your energy for the directions that you're going in, you're instead being the farmer who is taking a bunch of glorious, beautiful seeds and throwing them on hard packed ground. Not Even burying them, not fertilizing, no water and just saying, I hope you sprout. Everything has to be planted in energy, planted in soul, planted in spirit, planted in non physical, non physical and physical work together. 50, 50, hand in hand. Your tiny shifts begin in the non physical. They reveal themselves to you in the physical. So I urge you, we're not going to do a flow dream in this particular podcast, but if you want examples of them, you can hear some of them on YouTube. You can go grab one, get one from the store again in the free kit, there's samples for you. But begin this practice and begin feeling. I feel good with the tiny shifts. I feel ready. I feel eager for the tiny shifts. This is perfectly at my pace. I can do this. And that, my friends, is your end of the day feeling. I can do this. It doesn't feel like I'm climbing a mountain anymore. It doesn't feel like, whoa, so big and so out of reach and out of my range. Every single person you know started as a baby. They learned to crawl and walk and talk, and they went through school. We've all gone through the same things, different variations. There is no reason anyone needs to be at any level higher than you other than the fact that they applied themselves to the tiny steps, they did the inner work, and they put in the action work. All of which are things you are 100% capable of doing yourself. They are not difficult, not hard. You will learn along the way. You'll be gifted, you'll be guided, you'll be nurtured, you'll be led, you'll be corrected exactly as they were. Do you commit or not? That's the only question. And commitment often isn't something that you feel initially right away. Deep. It's something again that comes from the tiny steps and the little bits of joy, validation, the little bits of feeling that come as a response to each of the tiny steps where you say, this is working. I like this. So go, my friends, pick a few tiny steps, pick an area, something going on in your life right now that you want to work on, and go apply this. I bet you there's three or four things right now sitting in front of you in your life. Your health, your relationships, your wealth, your work, your soul, where you can progress a few tiny steps. And instead of thinking, these are gonna go nowhere, nothing's gonna happen, I want you to think, these are opening one door, another door, another door, another door. I wonder where they'll lead. That's where the magic is. All the miracles are tucked into this incredibly simple directive. So go right up some tiny steps, go begin doing them and let me know how it works out for you. I'm always available. You can go to Facebook, go to my I love Flow Dreaming group and we'll let you in. You have to, you have to ask. But we're pretty open armed and we'll welcome you. You can also find me on Instagram. I have a personal Instagram account now. It's summer underscore McStravic. I know, quite the mouthful. You can also look up Flow Dreaming for Instagram, but Summer McStravic is the one that I am most invested in right now. In fact, Instagram itself is a perfect example of a tiny step. You make a post every day. You make a post, you reply, you respond to other people's posts. Eventually what ends up happening is a critical mass is built up and then suddenly a lot of people are finding you. A lot of people are commenting and interacting. But it was just one step. One day. One day. One day. One post, one reply, one follow. So think on that and I'll see you guys all next week for another beautiful episode of Flow Dreaming. And until then, please go stay on your flow. Make it your daily practice, even just focus. Five minutes a day is all you need to move mountains, mountains in your life. Hey friends, a couple things to tell you about that I think you'll really enjoy. Flow Dreaming is a universe actually. In other words, yes there is a technique. But it's also an entire community of those of us who Flow dream and I have a of lot to give you to get you started that's 100% free. So if you go to flowdreaming.com the first thing you need to do is download my free kit that teaches you how to Flow Dream. It contains an audio of a Flow dream that's been recorded called Positive Flow just to get you right into flow state in under 15 minutes. It also includes a tutorial and a PDF guidebook. Now if you're on your mobile device right now, you can also get it by just going to the App Store and downloading the Flow Dreaming app. And it will come preloaded with this wonderful kit for you to learn the process. The next thing I wanted to mention for you is that MI School is my active, gorgeous, beautiful community of flow dreamers. And we learn together, we share and we grow in into our manifestational, our co creational and mostly our own deep, immense inner power. We do this together in a mentorship type, school type format. But believe me, no tests no quizzes. It's the best place you've ever been to. It calls itself a school, but it's really the place where you will completely transform yourself from inside out. So check that out, too. Last of all, I hope I see you guys on Facebook or Instagram. Just look up summer McStravic or flow dreaming and come say hi to me there. Until next time, my love to you all.