The Simple Question to Unlock Progress
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The Simple Question to Unlock Progress
Over the weekend, I got this email from a reader:
The generalized version has become the most common question I receive:
Big project, very intimidating
Don't know where to start
Feeling stuck, paralyzed, anxious
My response is always the same:
What's the simplest action you can take today that would create forward progress?
When faced with a big, complex problem, the natural tendency is to stare at the full thing. Stare long enough and it becomes a ten-headed monster with razor sharp teeth and long claws.
I get it. I've been there. Over and over again.
When I left my job to march down an entrepreneurial path. When I started my book. When I take on anything new and ambitious.
I'm alone, in the cave, staring down the angry beast.
Let's draw a lesson from Ancient Greek mythology:
When Hercules went into battle with the Hydra, a serpent-like monster with many heads, he was quickly discouraged. Every time he cut off a head, two would grow back in its place.
The task seemed impossible given the magic at work. But then, Hercules realized that while it wasn't possible to slay the whole beast at once, he could narrow his focus on one head at a time. If he could cut off a head and quickly cauterize the wound, no new heads grew back.
Slowly, painstakingly, he attacked each head, one by one, until he was victorious.
In a less fantastical example, we can consider Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway. When faced with a block, an intimidation at the scale of the task at hand, he said:
"All you have to do is write one true sentence."
Whatever project, task, or opportunity you're facing, ask yourself that question:
What's the simplest action I can take today that would create forward progress?
Answer that. Then do it.
It could be 30 minutes of writing. One cold email. One follow-up. 15 minutes of research. A conversation with a prospective client. A solo coffee date to journal on the vision. A 30 minute whiteboarding session with a friend.
It doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be something.
Anxiety feeds on idleness. You're feeling stuck and anxious because you're not doing anything. When you take action, you starve the anxiety of the oxygen it needs to survive.
The answers you seek are found in the simple actions you avoid.
