One of the most useful concepts I took from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is that of Resistance: the insidious force which attempts to steer you away from the work you’re meant to do.
I’ll write about Resistance some other day maybe, but I’m writing this to reflect on a strategy to counter Resistance: Little Successes. A quote from Steven’s conversation with Tim Ferris:
Resistance with a capital R—that force of self-sabotage—will try to stop you, as a writer, or an artist, or anybody, from achieving your best work; from following your calling. It will try to distract you, undermine your self-confidence, make you procrastinate, make you quit, make you give into fear—or, on the other hand, make you such a perfectionist that you spend all day on one paragraph and you accomplish nothing. The concept of little successes, or of a routine, is to help you overcome that Resistance.
The concept of Little Successes was shared with Steven by his friend Randy (Randall Wallace, writer of Braveheart), and is basically this: before you sit down to do The Work, count all of the small wins that you accumulate along the way—and they can be tiny.
Made the bed? That’s a Little Success.
Showered and brushed your teeth? A couple more.
Brewed a cup of coffee and read a page or two? Count both of ‘em.
By the time you sit down, you’ve already accomplished so much. You’re not sitting there staring down a big, immovable task—you’re just doing the next thing, accumulating more successes.
Every morning, I sit down and write out a little Analog task card by Ugmonk. On the front I write my tasks for the day (work and personal), and on the back I write down the habits I’d like to keep up: jump rope, shower, make coffee, write morning pages (and so on).
I knock a couple of those out before I get started with The Work, and it warms me up for the day. I already feel accomplished, just from making coffee. You could make them even smaller (and I probably should)—you could accumulate 10 Little Successes before you start The Work.
At first it feels a bit silly, but the older I get the more I’m convinced that the primary obstacle to success is that of “feeling cringe”. Push past it, and you’ll start to feel good (or at least, I did).
You accomplish so many Little Successes every day. Count them.