Start Small.

I came across a question on Quora - " What is the best advice you got? " It took me some time to think about it. Then I remembered what a mentor had said when I enlisted for my first public speaking contest. She said - " Start small. This will be a difficult thing to do. If you expect to become a champion in 2 months - that won't happen. You will just burn out, get depressed and never get back to contest. "

I didn't pay heed to her that time. Went in like a horse with blinders on. I wanted to win the District level of the 'International Speech Contest' ( held annually by Toastmasters International ) when I was hardly 3 months old in the Toastmasters fraternity. Watching the 'World Champion of Public Speaking' finalists made me feel I could do it too - with just enough practice and a good speech.

I timed out ( exceeded my speaking time of 7 minutes, 30 seconds ) at the 3rd level of the contest ( Division level ). Nothing could be more shameful for me at the time - I decided to quit my Toastmasters club and never look back.

Thankfully, my mentor did not give up on me. She repeated again, "Start small."

I had learnt my lesson and followed her advice. Since then, I have applied this advice to every aspect of my life and work and it has consistently given me positive results.

This is how I start small with everything I want to do:

Healthy Diet - Try intermittent fasting for 12 hours.

Exercise - Just do 5 minutes of stretching first thing in the morning.

Writing - Just write the 1st para of the speech/ article. Or just choose the headline.

Organisation - Clean out one drawer of the wardrobe.

Learning - Watch one Udemy video at 2x speed. Listen to an audiobook when washing dishes.

Finance - Set aside 10% of income to another account at the start of the month - do not withdraw for the whole month.

Video Creation - Watch 2 favourite YouTuber videos and jot down possible ideas.

This is just an example. What starting small does is take off the pressure. It removes the chances of burnout. It helps with a 'bias for action' rather than contemplation.

How can starting small work for you?

Say you want to start a business. Think big but start small. Think up a name for the business and get a domain name. Sketch out how the website will look. Create names for 2 - 3 products/ services that you will sell. Launch a poll on social media to get feedback from your tentative audience. Create a 2-page free pdf doc and share it with your network.

No one needs you and me to become millionaires and billionaires overnight. No one needs you and me to become world-famous artists and writers tomorrow. No one needs you and me to lose 20 kgs in 3 months or start a business in 6 months.

If you can shorten your timeline and do bigger things, then more power to you. If you can't, then just take those initial steps. Start small, manage your expectations of success and failure, keep depression and anxiety at bay, celebrate the small wins and keep going.

Cheers!