“不是说 the first…后面要接不定式作定语吗？”这句话没人说过吧！

对比以下句：

Setting goals is the first step to take/to be taken.

这就是你说的the first…后面要接不定式作（后置）定语。

你提供的这句：Setting goals is the first step in achieving them.

如果改成：Setting goals is the first step to achieve them.认为to achieve them是作后置定语，那这是一个怎样的后置定语？非动宾关系也非主谓关系。如果是同位语，那意思不对，the first step is to achieve them，这第一步就是实现目标了？如果是作目的状语，似乎说的通，用in order to更好。

我的理解：

也可改成：Setting goals is the first step to achieving them.

Setting goals is the first step toward achieving them.

这里的to是介词，后面用ing形式，类似toward的意思，只是用to doing比用toward doing的要少见，举几个例子：

1.A grasp of these two terms is a basic step to understanding how we have conceived this particular book.

2.a possible first step to sending a man back to the moon or to Mars.（Collins COBUILD English Dictionary1995第二版man词条下）

3.This is a first step toward clarifying things, but there are still many ambiguities.（Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary的ambiguity词条下）

4.The identification of a problem is the first step toward solving it.（麦克米伦高阶美语词典identification词条下）