Starting small

[00:00:00] Well, hello! This is The Daily Five with Aurooba, that's me, where we reflect on creating our best lives a little bit every day. Here we go!

[00:00:16] Do you know the blog Zen Habits? It's a blog that Leo Babauta started a long time ago. It's considered one of the biggest blogs in the world, and Leo really put blogging on the map. And the way he did it was by blogging about his own journey to becoming a better version of himself. I should also sidebar and say he really put productivity blogging on the map.

[00:00:40] For me, one of the most iconic things I remember about Zen Habits, apart from the three hot stones that were basically the Zen Habits logo back then, was his series on how he got started with running. It's an incredibly common concept now, but it was very novel back then. And I would argue that in terms of implementation, it still feels very novel.

[00:01:02] I may even have talked about it in the first season, but I'm going to do it again anyway because it's something that has always really stuck with me. The idea is that you have to start really, really small. So, to keep it with the running example, Leo would say, Just lace up your shoes and step out of the door that very first day.

[00:01:26] And then maybe you walk for one minute the next day, or run. And then maybe you do two minutes the next day. And you keep going until you can walk or run for 30 minutes. And when you say it out loud, or when you read it, you can nod along and say, Yeah, that sounds reasonable, that sounds right. But it's a very different thing when you start actually trying it.

[00:01:53] Seriously, let's say that today you do want to start running. And at some point I did decide that I wanted to start running. So, the goal was, lace up my shoes and step out the door. That is it. After that, you may go back inside and be done. And then the next day, you lace up your shoes, step out the door, start a timer, and then walk or run for one minute.

[00:02:17] The very first time I did this, I felt like a total fool, and I basically quit because I felt like a fool. Who walks for one minute and then goes back inside? You know? All I could think was, oh my goodness, whoever's watching, if they see me walk or run for one minute, which is, you know, you're not going to get very far in your neighborhood when you do that. And then I go back? What? They're going to be like, what is wrong with this woman? Which, I mean, that says many things too, you know.

[00:02:51] It just, at least, it seems so dumb. Starting small feels dumb because it feels so easy in the moment, or basic. Like I said the other day, an imperfect start and an imperfect practice is better than not doing it anything at all.

[00:03:07] And if you are wondering what happened, I never took up running. Ever. Gym class and forced marathons in high school have scarred me for life, and the only way I'm running is if it's part of something else.

[00:03:18] But I eventually did learn to get over looking like a fool in public. Most of the time, anyway. In fact, I would say I do things literally every day that make me look like a fool. Sometimes they are even on purpose. And what I learned from that is we judge ourselves far more harshly than anyone else does for the most part. Most people don't even think I'm making a fool of myself. Most people don't even notice the thing I did at all, let alone judge it in some way.

[00:03:44] So eventually I kind of took Leo's core advice to heart. And any successful change I've ever made in my life has been a direct result of starting incredibly small. So small that it feels silly. And every time I have failed to make a change, it's because I didn't follow the advice. And thought that, hey, maybe for this one I can start big. And I can't. You can't either. Not really. And it's not because you're weak or incapable. It's because starting small is easier. Starting small makes it easy to like a thing. And when you like a thing, you're more likely to do it. And if you're more likely to do it, then you're gonna keep doing it. And you'll keep prioritizing it until one day you've built it up into something that feels manageable.

[00:04:32] What feels really big now is no longer big. It feels small and now you've, you know, changed your threshold for what small or big means in that particular situation. So start small and don't worry about looking like a fool. You're not.

[00:04:54] Thanks for listening. Same time tomorrow?