That’s how you take the journey of a thousand miles. You put one foot in front of the other. And you keep doing that until you get there.
My husband was recently watching Meg 2. I’ve never seen Meg 1, but I sat down while he was watching Meg 2 and watched the second half of it with him anyway. It was about people being eaten by various creatures and also destroying each other.
Every so often, the hero would say to someone: “First, we do what’s in front of us. Then we do the next thing.”
I looked up that quote. I found that somebody had remarked that it sounded like the way a computer would write a script.
Did a computer really write those lines? Who knows. But I wonder now if that is the advice that a computer would give to a human. If computers could see what we are doing, what would they think? If they asked why we didn’t accomplish our chores or fulfill our dreams, what would they think of our answers?
“I was afraid of failure.”
“I’ve been putting it off because I don’t feel like doing it.”
When computers are told to do a task, they don’t procrastinate. They don’t make excuses. They don’t worry about failure. They just do it. If you get an error message ftom a computer, it’s because it tried and failed. It made the attempt, but something went wrong. Computers don’t give up before they start.
Planning is good. Thinking ahead is good. Working ourselves into a state of anxiety over the enormity of the project is not. A computer would simply get started.
When you are overwhelmed with anxiety or fear of failure, first do what’s in front of you. Then do the next thing.