Do you ever get caught up in your head about a future goal or task you have to accomplish? When I first conceived the idea of starting this blog, I wasn’t exactly sure what it was going to be about. I let this uncertainty delay this project for as long as I can remember.
The funny thing is, I am still unclear about the direction I want this to go.
The Problem
In a world obsessed with perfection and massive achievements, there is an undue pressure to get things right the first time. Success must be instantaneous. The first attempt must be the best.
The problem with this? The need for perfection can be incapacitating. After all, it’s better to have never tried and avoid failure than it is to do your best and still fail, right? It then becomes easy to be overwhelmed by the details and obstacles we must overcome to attain that vision.
This fixation causes us to delay plans, or at worst neglect them altogether. Inaction is comfortable. It does not exhaust. It does not require discipline and we do not have to deal with the pain of failure.
Like deers in a headlight, do we always have to be paralysed by our own plans, estimations and dreams? Are we forever doomed to this relentless cycle of overthinking? Or is there something to be done about this bug in our conditioning?
How do we overcome this fear of failure and perfectionism?
The Solution
In an interview, Will Smith talked about the mindset that drove him forward in his acting career. Here’s an excerpt:
“You don’t set out to build a wall. You don’t start by saying, ‘I’m going to build the biggest, baddest wall that’s ever been built.’ You don’t start there. You say, ‘I’m going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid.’ If you do that every single day, soon you will have a wall.”
Big things start small. A mundane statement yet one with astronomical implications.
This realisation had a tremendous effect on my psyche. I was no longer thinking about this blog in its prospects as a final product. It forced me to take that vision and dissect it into smaller pieces. Instead of worrying about the general content of the blog, my energy could be better spent thinking about the introduction of my first article, the next paragraph, its contents, and then moving on to the next.
Breaking down tasks into smaller actionable pieces makes them less daunting. Laying bricks is infinitely easier than building an eight floor storey building. You can’t have the latter without the former, yet we allow the schema of the building affect our ability to lay blocks.
Completing small steps consistently over time leads to significant achievements. Concentrate on a small part of what is in front of you rather than the size of the remaining task. This allows you to build momentum and remain motivated. Whether you are pursuing a career, working on a personal goal or thinking about starting a blog, this mindset helps you get moving.
Focus on doing one thing well, then move on to the next. Let these incremental changes build on top of each other and watch consistency slowly lead to progress.
One brick and then another.
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