Start with Small Steps

About Start with Small Steps

Start With Small Steps is a practical, thoughtful podcast about making meaningful progress in everyday life—without overwhelm. Each episode breaks big ideas into small, manageable steps you can actually use, whether you’re working on habits, health, productivity, faith, or personal growth. Instead of chasing quick fixes or perfect systems, this podcast focuses on steady change, reflection, and realistic action. You’ll hear clear explanations, relatable examples, and simple frameworks designed to help you think better, choose wisely, and keep moving forward—even when life feels complicated or slow. Start With Small Steps is for anyone who wants growth that fits real life: small actions, honest reflection, and progress that lasts.

Publisher

Jill from The Northwoods

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Sept 2020

Latest episode

11 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

297 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   11 Aug 2026

   294 - Proving vs. Improving: Why They Aren’t the Same Thing

   What if every time you try to prove someone wrong about you, you actually reinforce the exact thing they doubted? That’s the trap at the center of this episode — the quiet difference between proving yourself and improving yourself, and why they can look identical from the outside while leading to completely different places. Proving Is Reactive Proving yourself is oriented around changing someone else’s opinion, not around actually doing the thing better. It’s loud, it needs an audience, and it leaves you tethered to someone else’s doubt — even after you’ve technically “won” the specific argument. The Emotional Cost of an Audience of One As long as your effort is aimed at someone else’s skepticism, that person is quietly steering your life — even if they never say another word about it. That’s an exhausting way to live that has nothing to do with how much real work you’re doing. Why Proving Rarely Pays Off Anyway People rarely update their opinion of you even after you prove them wrong once. If someone has decided you’re unreliable, one instance of follow-through won’t undo that — you can win the specific moment and still lose the larger war. Improving Is Quiet and Compounding Improving is measured against your own past self, not someone else’s expectations. It doesn’t need a witness, and it doesn’t evaporate the moment the doubter leaves the room — it just keeps compounding in the background. The Diagnostic Question When proving and improving start to blur together, ask: am I doing this because I genuinely want to get better, or because I want a specific person to think better of me? And: would I still do this if they never found out? Some overlap between the two is fine — a system that helps you remember to take out the trash also happens to prove you’re reliable, and that’s not a problem. The point isn’t to never let anyone see your progress. It’s to make sure the work would still be worth doing even if no one ever noticed. Standard Footer (reuse as-is — no need to re-read) Website: jillfromthenorthwoods.com Email: northwoodsjill@fastmail.com I’m Jill from the Northwoods — appreciate you being out there. Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ (https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/) - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod) https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill (https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill) https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps (https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps) Email the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com (mailto:jill@startwithsmallsteps.com) By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, life coach, or mental health professional. Any habits, strategies, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or counseling advice. Results vary — small steps look different for everyone. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

2. 

   4 Aug 2026

   293 - Why “Pretty Darn Good” Beats “Optimized”

   What is life if you’re not chasing something? That question runs through so much of modern productivity culture, and I got caught up in it myself — in my own career, I always needed the next title, the next promotion, the next thing. This episode makes the case for a different standard: not an optimized life, but a pretty darn good one. Not all-or-nothing. Piece by piece. The Pretty Darn Good Job The optimized version chases the next title, the next exit strategy, the constant hustle. The pretty darn good version pays fairly, doesn’t wreck your evenings, and leaves you liking who you are by Friday. That’s not settling — it’s what makes the rest of your life possible. The Pretty Darn Good Home Instead of a house that’s a perpetual renovation project chasing a magazine spread, a pretty darn good home is warm, lived-in, and comfortable enough that you’re not embarrassed to have someone over on a random Tuesday. The Pretty Darn Good People Optimized relationships treat people like a network to be leveled up. Pretty darn good relationships are the people you actually want at your table — imperfect, but the ones who make you happiest. The Cost of the Extreme Version A spectacular career can come at the expense of your health or your family — I’ve lived that trade-off myself. A “solidly good” life isn’t spectacular anywhere, but it’s steady everywhere, and that adds up to more than one blazing area surrounded by wreckage. I bring in Jim Carrey’s well-known 2005 comment about wishing everyone could get everything they dreamed of, just to see for themselves it isn’t the answer. Being Fair to the Other Side Hustle culture isn’t hollow — some people are genuinely wired for maximum drive, and real innovation gets built by people chasing extreme outcomes. The honest question isn’t whether to ever optimize, but which one lane in your life actually deserves that kind of attention right now. The Complacency Trap “Pretty darn good” can become a costume for avoidance if you’re not careful. The honest move is to check yourself: is this actually fine, or are you just scared to change it? Three small steps this week: pick one lane that deserves real attention and name it. For everything else, ask honestly if it’s pretty darn good — and if it is, let yourself stop there. And check yourself on the complacency trap, because if something really does need to change, it’s worth the effort. If you want to go deeper, I mention the book 4,000 Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I’m Jill from the Northwoods. I recently switched my email — you can reach me now at northwoodsjill@fastmail.com, and find everything at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ (https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/) - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod) https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill (https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill) https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps (https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps) Email the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com (mailto:jill@startwithsmallsteps.com) By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, life coach, or mental health professional. Any habits, strategies, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or counseling advice. Results vary — small steps look different for everyone. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

3. 

   28 Jul 2026

   292 - What My Childhood Taught My Nervous System

   Most conversations about hard childhoods stop at “it affected them as kids.” Almost nobody asks what happens after — because childhood doesn’t stay contained to childhood. It moves in with you as an adult, and it rarely announces itself when it shows up. In this episode, I walk through Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): what the research actually found, how it showed up in my own life, and four practical starting points for anyone who recognizes themselves in this. What ACEs Actually Are In the 1990s, Kaiser Permanente and the CDC studied adults about specific categories of childhood hardship — abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction like addiction, untreated mental illness, or divorce. What they found wasn’t just emotional; it reshaped how researchers understood long-term physical health outcomes too. How It Shows Up Decades Later Higher rates of heart disease, chronic pain, weight and substance struggles — and a quieter pattern I know personally: being “braced for impact” even when nothing is actually wrong. I share how noticing this in my own stress data was the first real clue. It’s Not a Life Sentence A high ACE score doesn’t determine your future. The single biggest protective factor across every study was having just one steady, caring adult somewhere in the picture — and that changes the odds significantly. Step 1: Name It You can’t fix a reaction you haven’t identified. I walk through how naming a pattern (“I don’t trust the future”) is the first real step, not a reason to stay stuck in it. Step 2: Your Body Remembers Old alarm systems fire in new contexts — a late bill, an unexpected email — and recognizing that pattern is different from being ruled by it. Step 3: Stability Is Not Wasted Effort Rebuilding a calm, steady life as an adult recalibrates a nervous system that never had that as a baseline. It may take longer than it would for someone with a steady childhood, but it’s not out of reach. Step 4: Everything Is Figureoutable The bridge from naming the pattern to actually doing something about it — including the strange, personal story of how my own decades-long insomnia finally resolved. If any part of this sounds like your own life, it’s not a life sentence — it’s information. Naming it and building stability from here is where the real change starts. Recommended resource: The original ACE study questionnaire is short, self-scoring, and available online in about five minutes if you want a starting point. Find every show I do at jillfromthenorthwoods.com. This episode touches on childhood trauma and family dysfunction. If anything in it sounds like your own experience and it’s weighing on you right now, please consider reaching out to a mental health professional or a trusted person in your life for support. Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ (https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/) - Find my podcasts, videos, downloads and ways to contact me https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod) https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill (https://x.com/NorthWoodsJill) https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps (https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallsteps) Email the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com (mailto:jill@startwithsmallsteps.com) By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal experiences and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist, life coach, or mental health professional. Any habits, strategies, or suggestions offered should not be considered a substitute for professional medical, psychological, or counseling advice. Results vary — small steps look different for everyone. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

18,463

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 76 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

90

Social presence

0

YouTube

76

Engagement

76

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