Looking down toward Block Island's Corn Cove.

Last weekend, I went with my family to Block Island - a small chunk of land some 13 miles off the coast of my home state, Rhode Island. Block Island is a wonderful and largely untouched island (it’s considered on of the last 12 great places in the Western Hemisphere by the Nature Conservancy) with pristine beaches, hiking trails and scenic vistas that can’t be rivaled.

We followed a small path through the island’s bluffs to a beach known as Corn Cove. To get to the beach, visitors must descend a steep, 100-step winding staircase through eroding dunes and then scale a 25-foot cascade of split boulders. When considered as a whole, the task at hand seems overwhelmingly large. Looking down at the beach below from high atop the bluffs, it might even strike visitors - my mom and aunt included - as impossible.

But in actuality, the goal of getting down to the beach can be broken down into hundreds of small steps. And in and of themselves, none of those steps are actually that difficult; they’re doable. As visitors take their time and descend one step at a time, they’re soon surprised by their progress.

The same can be said about fitness. Our goals might seem unachievable or insurmountable - but in actuality, they’re really the sum total of many small and totally doable small steps.

To want to lose 20 pounds, run a 6-minute mile or add 15 pounds of muscle are all lofty goals. But really, each of those goals can be broken down into individual workouts. While each step to the beach or each workout might not seem like much, the cumulative effect of these steps is real progress.

Sometimes getting caught up in the big picture can paralyze us from moving forward. But it doesn’t have to be that way. When your goals seem overwhelming, remember that it’s only about taking the very next step.

And then the next

And the next.