Dream big, but plan small

What's the smallest action you can commit to?

Photo by Nazli Mozaffari on Unsplash

I had done it! I had finally figured out what my contribution to the world would be, and I was going to start ASAP. I sat down, stretched, and started sketching out the blueprints for an idea that I knew was going to be huge — or so I thought. 

A few months ago, I was stuck in the haze of my latest attempt to create a useful web app/ digital business. I spent weeks planning out the extensive list of features, convinced that once I completed this impossibly large project it would have a positive impact on a huge number of people. After spending so much time planning and ideating, I lost motivation, crushed under the weight of this massive goal. The project ended up abandoned in a graveyard of other unfinished ideas, and I failed to learn the most important element of starting a new creative endeavor: start small.

Dreaming big is super important, but to start off your journey by climbing Everest is a recipe for disaster. When we make goals, we subconsciously picture what our life will be like once we achieve them. Similar to when you are outshined by peers, we tend to compare our current selves to our successful future selves, and if the discrepancy between where we are and where we would like to be is too large, feeling discouraged and self-conscious is inevitable; If you are too inferior to the next version of yourself, you will give up any hope of getting there.

In the realm of entrepreneurship, there is this concept called a "minimum viable product"; it is the smallest working version of a business idea that achieves the main goals without blowing thousands of hours on a full-fledged prototype. Airbnb didn't start with an app, they started with a Craigslist post and an air mattress; Dropbox didn’t even have an app — it was just a Youtube video!. Here's a useful question to ask yourself: what's the smallest possible action that I can regularly commit to that will help me make even the SMALLEST amount of progress toward this goal?

Progress should be a staircase, not a cliff face; If you find yourself constantly quitting the tasks that you set for yourself, consider what the smallest next step you could take toward your goal is.

Dream big, but plan small.