Start small

Talking to one person is significantly less scary than talking to a crowd.

Planning what you will do today is much easier than planning what you will do with your life.

Often, we tend to overlook the fact that a crowd consists of individual people, and that one’s life is essentially a long sequence of days strung together.

Try this. The next time you speak publicly, pick one person you know among the audience and imagine that you’re speaking to them only. The next time you ask yourself, “How can I be happier?” Instead ask yourself, “How can I be happier today?”

I use a variant of this “mind trick” when I write. This blog itself is an example. Writing to an unknown audience on the Internet can be quite scary - I reckon that many of us either freeze or become perfectionists because we have no idea who might read what we post online. For me, the task becomes easier when I deliberately reduce its scale, by deciding ahead of time that I’m not writing for the online masses, but rather for one specific person.

In the case of this blog, I like to envision that I’m writing to my younger, less experienced self. My understanding is there are many 20- or 30-somethings out there, and at least some number are interested in a lifetime journey of personal growth just as I have been. Since I’m older and likely further along on my own journey, it follows that the experiences I share could be useful to them. This motivates me to write.

About four years ago, I wrote an article online that focuses on this exact exercise, where I pretended to give advice to that younger me. It was my most well-received piece of writing, which left a deep impression on me. (If you’re interested, you can read it here.)

Start small. Often, the relevant unit to focus on is one person, one day, one habit, one blog post, one objective. We gain more clarity by doing this. And perhaps more importantly, it reduces inertia, inspiring us to actually start.