The staircase technique is a mental tool that regulates the achievement of a goal such as learning a new movement.
The idea is to break down the movement into small steps that can be crossed and managed.
This tool reminds us of the mental gymnastics necessary when it comes to think about our desires to learn and succeed a movement.
The idea is to be able to look at the final step from time to time without dwelling on it because too much looking at it leaves the door open to various psychic movements such as doubt, inhibition, fantasies and confusion.
If these movements are too present, it interferes with learning process or even worse, causing it to fail.
When you catch yourself imagining too much doing the final movement, you can bring your awareness back to the step of the stairs you are taking.
The stake: “there is only this step which is important in my eyes for the moment”. The rest has to be temporarily hidden.
This mental gymnastics allows you to stay in a mental comfort zone which leads to a feeling of personal efficiency.
The future is then as much determined by the present (one step at a time) as the present is determined by the future (when you are looking from the top of the stairs from time to time).
This loop of double cause and effect is nourished by small actions which succeed in making us succeed in reaching our goal.