That big task ahead of you looks hard. It looks that way because it is.

It's so large that thinking about it becomes overwhelming, and you don't even know where to start. So you do what most people do: you think about it a lot, but you don't do a lot.

I don't know what your big thing is. Maybe it's a work project, a book you want to write, or a marathon you want to run. Whatever it is, here's the secret to changing your tune.

If something feels too hard to do, it just means the first step isn't small enough.

Stop looking at the whole thing. Look at the smallest thing you can do. Shrink the change. Shorten the shift.

This doesn't mean you'll finish once you start small. Far from it. But something strange happens when you start small: you see progress. And progress is what keeps you going.

On the show Hoarders, one coach built her whole method around something called the five-minute rule. She asks the hoarder to clean one part of the room for five minutes. The second the timer goes off, they're free to stop.

Every time, something strange happens. At the end of five minutes, the hoarder feels a flicker of progress, and they ask for another five minutes.

You're the same. Make the hard thing small enough to act on, and you give yourself a real shot at seeing it through.

Read that again.

Your big task doesn't need a plan. It needs a five-minute start.

P.S. The Optimistic Outlook is a Podcast! Leaving a rating or review wherever you listen to podcasts would mean a lot.