How much courage do you need?

How to attempt the things that scare you

Ever gone fishing?
If not, you might throw in your hook in all day and not get much.

Or how would it feel to make a billion dollars tomorrow?
Well, it’s also unlikely that you would.

Or a hit song, or your a best selling book, or the number 1 podcast, or a unicorn, or a second citizenship or ___________

You might have dreams so big, you don’t know where to start
Or perhaps what you’re up against is not that big, it’s just new to you and you’re holding back because urrrrrrrgh! Where do I start? Or how do I start?

It turns out that, in moving from point A to point B, it doesn't have to be a jump, as a matter of fact, the bigger the goal, the more overwhelming it is to jump.

It’s like “how do I face a black blank screen and type codes into it all day with zero success? And do it over and over and over again for months just to become a junior programmer and that’s not even 20% of my overall goal”

Or “how do I build a start-up to become a unicorn when I don't even have the slightest clue on how to hire or take the lead”

And you’re not wrong, you probably can’t do what you said you can’t do but don't mistake incompetence for inexperience (I heard Jay Shetty say that).

The secret to getting great things done is in doing what you can do, no matter how little, and making progress.

And little means LITTLE. Shamelessly little!

If you want to get out of bed two hours earlier every day, the question is “how much early can I be up?” especially if you can’t do the jump. 1 hour?
Is that hard? Try 30 minutes, and if that’s hard try 10, or even 5.

You might say it doesn't mean anything but look at you! You’re up 5 minutes earlier than usual! That’s not nothing! Or do you prefer jumping and failing every other day?
Well, now that you’re up 5 minutes earlier, how about we try 10?

Or, say you want to open a new restaurant and the mere thought of it overwhelms you. You don't have to “open a new restaurant”, maybe start by making a list of what it takes to open a restaurant. That’s a start.

Then the next task might be to arrange that list in order of effort or resources required. And get to them one after the other.

If a list is hard to make a list, today’s task can be as simple as getting a clean sheet of paper and a pen to the side of your bed before you go to sleep.
And when you wake up, you can write one item, and another tomorrow and in a week, you’d have a list.

How much work is it to get a sheet of paper to the side of your bed?

If it overwhelms you, don’t overlook it, break it down until it doesn't.

You don’t need spectacular steps to make something spectacular.
You just need the courage to try.
It’s how kids learn to walk.
One foot forward, then another.