Maybe It's Easier Than You Think

Often, when you look at an inspiring person, they seem lightyears ahead. Even if you started now, you could never reach the position they're in. Right?

Other times, you have a goal and know how to achieve it but you simply can't act. You procrastinate and your bad habits take the reign. It's just too difficult to break your patterns.

But maybe none of this is true. Maybe it's easier than you think.

Your "stuckness" is subjective. Your brain doesn't know there's only a single step you'd have to take to free yourself. It thinks the problem is unsurmountable. But mostly, we're just bottlenecked in one specific spot.

For the longest time, I struggled with creating my own projects. I knew I wanted to be an "indie hacker". I wanted to create apps that could be scaled and sold to people. But somehow, I never started building. Instead, I kept learning programming concepts and languages. This was busy procrastination - it felt good and productive to master skills. But it always nagged at me that I wasn't on track with my goals.

I talked to friends about this, I journaled, and I read founder stories to become inspired. But nothing really clicked. My problem seemed huge.

Until one day, I just decided that "this is it". Enough of the learning, let's start building. I banned myself from checking out programming concepts, and I committed to two hours a day for my own stuff.

The thing is: It wasn't even hard. I just decided. There was no friction, no magical, mystical element or rite of passage. Just letting go of learning, and starting the actual work.

Within days, building apps became normal. A "normal" activity is easy to repeat. So, I stuck with it. Now and then, my desire to learn comes back, but I either ignore it or feed it with a bit of time (after all, learning relevant skills can have great benefits).

This was my specific bottleneck. Simply letting go of my "I don't know enough yet" belief, and spending my time on what matters.

My point is this: The change you're seeking for yourself might not even be a big one. Often, it's just a little tweak.

Want to lose weight? Skip breakfast. Want to be more social? Ask one person how they're doing per day. Want to promote yourself? Tweet daily.

These things kick off positive spirals. Once you've started, you're proud of yourself for doing so. "You can do this!", you realize. Repeating it becomes easier. Your progress makes it fun and motivating. All of a sudden, it's three months later, and you've forgotten about that "huge" problem of yours.

So, what's your big problem right now, the one your mind keeps coming back to? What is an easy step to get better? Do that today.