Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Here is Brady's view of the hardwood stairs from the second floor of our home.

If you were a small puppy, with legs growing longer and more clumsy each day, you would find the prospect of descending these steps rather daunting.
During his first week, Brady tried to follow Bruce up a few of these steps, and he went woefully sliding down. He made a mental note never to try interior stairs again. After that little accident, Brady would cry when we took him to those or the basement stairs.
I didn't want to reinforce his fears by carrying him up and down steps until I strained muscles in my lower back.
To grow into a confidant dog (with an owner who doesn't walk hunched over), Brady needs to know that he's capable of tackling something scary even if he is a puppy.

Above is a picture of Brady at the top of the stairs, weighing out his options. (Could he make a home of the upstairs? Is there a patch of snowy grass where one could take a dump? Most importantly, where are the biscuits?!)
Once again, I took Cesar Millan's advice, and empowered my puppy instead of doing it all for him.
I sat one step below him at the top. (I apologize that I don't have a picture of that, but you see, I was the only one there with him and felt it prudent to concentrate on assisting him rather than contorting to fit us both into the frame as he went airborne cursing my name.)
I held out my arms and said, "You can do it, Brady! C'mon, boy- I'll catch you."
I said this over and over until he was ready to go...just..one...step.
Finally, he did and I kept my promise to hold him for a minute. I slid down another step and another, then two, continuing to hold my arms out until his confidence grew.
Brady followed, slowly, carefully concentrating.

Soon, I could go down enough steps to turn and take this photo of Brady going down the steps all by himself.

Here's Brady, nearly at the bottom, looking quite proud of himself.
(Either that, or he's saying, "Really? You want a picture of me here?")

So, it got me thinking about the times when I've been totally overwhelmed with the idea of doing something new and scary. There's that feeling that the steps are too big and there's way too many of them. Where do you start?
It's easier to stay where you are and stick with what you know and can easily tackle.
But, you have to move forward to grow and open up possibilities.
If all you do is envision the hard fall, how can you ever move ahead?

The idea of starting this blog was pretty daunting to me. Who will want to read it?, I wondered. How will I write consistently for the first few months of his life, let alone, the first year?

I decided to start with the first step, entry #1, "Pup or No Pup?".
This is my 11th post, and somehow, the task doesn't seem nearly as daunting anymore....