Notice that in the text distinction is made between steps and the way. By steps are meant all the individual acts we perform at any given moment. Every secret motive is a step on the way. We are continually stepping. We are continually going on, and our individual acts are steps on the way.
Some steps are more important than others.
But that is not all. Our individual way is linked up with the way of everyone else. If I review my way, I find that my way was determined for me even before I was born. So it with the steps of the individual upon the life of the world as a whole. This is very evident today.