this question arose from a discussion with a friend of mine.
So it all started with the following:
"Look mate, if you want to get very strong you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step to it"
The question is about the "That's the first step to it"-part. Is this correct? And if so what does it exactly mean? Does it mean something like "First step towards a strong body"? Or is it more like "First necessary step"?
I suggested that we could just say "That's the first step.". But the discussion unfolded and now we wonder about whether the "step to it" would also be correct or not.
We started to talk about a bunch of alternatives but we could not agree which of them are really correct and which aren't and what they would actually mean if they were correct. They might even all be correct but vary in meaning. So could you please help us out to end this discussion and annotate which one of the following are correct and how they should be understood?:
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step."
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step to it."
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step towards it."
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step to your goal."
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step towards your goal."
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step to achieve your goal.
- "…you got to start lifting weights! That's the first step to achieving your goal.
And as a final thing: could you please also tell which one would be the most 'normal' way a native-speaker would say this.
Best Answer
The first step to doing something. The first step to a stronger body. The first step to it.
Lifting weights is the first step to it.
This is very simple.