Breaking Things Down
Breaking Things Down
Big goals are really just a collection of small goals.
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In 2022 when we finished exiting my last company, I finally found myself with free time. I wanted to do things I never had time for (like art and writing) and to give back to the tech community. I had so many lessons after two decades as a founder and CEO that I wanted to share them, and help others as I had been helped on my journey.
My first thought was to write a book! That’s what you do with lots of experience, right? There aren’t a lot of great books with practical, specific advice on leadership and I felt like such a book would make a big difference. It’s something I wished I had myself.
As much as I wanted, writing a book seemed like too much. It can take 6+ months to write the first draft and then another 6 months to edit it into the final form. That was a commitment I just couldn’t make. Mostly because I don’t have that kind of patience.
But I could write a post every week! And that started The Breaking Point, which just passed 100 posts. If you think about it, I did end up writing a book! Just in small parts, published weekly.
It’s really hard to start on huge projects, because it’s easy to focus on the massive effort and hard to see any real progress when you get started. Writing a book, building a new product or starting a company are huge undertakings and the finish can feel impossible before you get started.
Breaking them down into smaller goals is an obvious approach, because then you can feel accomplishment along the way and have some measure of progress. But the effort to break a huge project down into smaller goals is a huge project itself! Often, the act of breaking down the huge project just makes it seem bigger and more impossible.
So, don’t do that.
Instead, pick a smaller version of the project. Instead of writing a book, write a post. Don’t commit to writing 100 posts, just one post! If it goes well, you can write another one. If you’re building a business, just get one customer (if you can). Then worry about the second, and then the third. Don’t focus on the bigger picture, just take the first step, then the next, and then the next.
I used to think this kind of approach was a form of avoidance. That it was a sign of weakness to avoid the bigger project and tackling the massive undertaking. It seems too easy to quit after one post, and never get to the entire book. And it is true, that is possible.
However, after twenty years I’ve found that there is a law of conservation of momentum when it comes to projects. Once you start, it’s easier to keep going. The more steps you take, the easier it is to take more. It’s not about the ambition or size of the goal, it’s about building up momentum by doing the work over and over again. If you can build momentum, then you can build anything!
I really enjoy The Breaking Point and plan to write it for many years to come. I appreciate all of you who make it so rewarding, and for all the notes and comments I receive. I especially appreciate all the paid subscribers, all of you drive me to do better every week! If any of the frameworks and advice here make your journey a little easier, it will have been worth it.
So, I’ll continue to break down my huge tasks into smaller pieces and continue publishing every week. What big undertaking are you waiting on, and how can you start chipping away at it today? Don’t worry about the big ambitious goal, just take the first step. And then another…
Wow, 100 posts??!!! Check out the Table of Contents for a list of posts by category. It’s almost like a book. 😉