it’s always the most difficult thing to do. as clay shirky says: the gap between doing nothing and doing anything is greater than the gap between doing anything and doing the thing you hope to accomplish.

take running for example. if you’re not a runner, running five miles is difficult. how in the world are you, as out of shape as you are, going to find a way to run five miles? you can’t. at least not until you break it down into smaller steps.

get dressed. put on your sweat pants and college t-shirt. you can do that in no time. now put on your running shoes. all of a sudden, you’re dressed to go for a run. now go outside or step on the treadmill. all of a sudden, you’re dressed to go for a run and you’re outside ready to run. all that’s left to do is to start running.

you won’t run five miles flat out but if you can keep the momentum going, in just a few days time you’ll start to form a habit of running—and keeping that habit going is a whole lot easier than getting started from nothing.

if you’re looking at the backlog of bugs in your software, if you’re staring blankly at an empty project schedule, if you’re wondering how in the world you’re going to edit that forty-page document, the best thing to do is to start somewhere simple.

you face and conquer the “i don’t wannas” by facing and conquering the “i can do thats” instead.