Tag: compound effect

That thing we feared

Posted on by philipdodson

Those things that we fear, the ones that we fear the most, when we start them and do them it’s amazing afterwards how we realise just how stupid it was to have feared them.

The things that we fear the most are the ones we put off the most. However, they’re the ones we really want to do the most but I’m just too fearful to start. It is the starting that’s the challenge not the doing, the doing is the easy bit and afterwards we realise why on earth did I have a fear of this thing.

So how do we get to start? We get to start by doing the small things, the small steps not the big things, the small steps and if it’s a big thing, we’ve got to do break it down to small things small tiny steps.

Small tiny steps that we won’t fear, that the brain or the mind won’t pick up on and sabotage.

That’s the trick, daily habits, small steps, tiny little things and then the compound effect comes.

Initially, we don’t see much of a change but gradually over time the momentum grows and the change becomes enormous and then we’ve gone from doing a series of tiny small insignificant steps to a giant leap that we could’ve never done before because the giant leap was too fearful.

Small steps is the answer, just 123 go, a small step never a giant leap, we never fear a small step.

The excuse factory

Posted on by philipdodson

There are 3 steps to starting anything in life…1,2,3 GO!

Or we can, of course, complicate it, the mind is a top-level specialist at over-complication, along with perfection, it is one of its top weapons to prevent showing up and taking any risk. It is the excuse factory that will create reasons not to do something, the more levels of complication, the more thought and the more reasons to put off.

Simple small steps are easy, we can just start them…1,2,3 go.

If we break down any goal, plan, task, or action into small baby steps, that if done and repeated frequently, will over a given time period propel us to our goals.

As we are doing the tiny steps, the mind is silent as there is no perceived risk, it goes under the ‘fear’ radar undetected, and we get to our goals because guess what? we are actually doing something regularly. The journey of a thousand miles starts with just one step…as the saying goes.

It requires focus, commitment and a willingness to build a habit and, of course, patience. Like all things, when we do them frequently, they become easier and there is a compound effect that we see much greater achievement than we imagined if we do them often enough and for a long enough time.

Short-term quick ‘wins’ that require huge amounts of effort and overcoming the fear of starting mammoth tasks, always fail as we never get out of the starting blocks. There are no shortcuts and the mind’s psychological fears of any large daunting tasks are impossible to overcome without just focusing on the small step that can be done now.

Keep things simple, do them often, stay focussed in the moment that is now and don’t think beyond that. The excuse factory can be closed forever, it just takes one small step.