bias for action and tiny next steps
This is a sort of follow up to an earlier post this week: don’t waste it.
I am constantly circling back to something I wrote about there — the idea of just figuring out your next tiniest step. What is the next, absolutely smallest and totally manageable thing you can do to keep yourself propelling forward?
All week, I’m noticing I keep getting stuck in little moments of indecision and feeling insufficiently able to make a choice. Like, getting really frustrated and antsy about the decision and wanting to just put it off and postpone it, or outsource it and ask someone else to tell me what to do. (Side note: This is generally not an option as an adult, and even when it is, I promise you, it’s not the path to a true, aligned, wholehearted life, unique to you, one that is yours and yours alone, one that really fits and feels good. Other people don’t know the map for us because we are going places they’ve never been. Other people are not us. You are the only one who can write your story, and I’m the only one who can write mine.)
My indecision has been happening with big things but also with little things as small as what needs to be picked up at the grocery store and if I have enough ingredients for a recipe or should get more. (Really this is not an agonizing conundrum, and what would be the harm in just getting more, and if they aren’t needed, they can stay in the fridge? Here’s to taking the drama out of it…)
I’m experiencing some decision fatigue and getting generally tired from a big week of important and mundane things. But what I’m noticing…
The next, tiniest step is really helping.
Developing a bias for action, instead of letting everything pile up into a Big Thing for later, is effectively moving me through the mountain of choices in my head and week. (I am still putting off some of them though. 😜)
So the idea from that post, about doing far better when we’re taking action, proves true for me over and over.
When you’re stuck in a split in the path, remember you make your own path.
Can you just choose one? You probably can. If you get quiet enough inside, you probably already know.
I saw this image on Instagram today, and I love it.
Sometimes a decision is small enough (what groceries should I buy?) that the best course is really just to lower the stakes, quiet the noise in your head, choose something, and then do it. The decision being made will bring a sense of relief, and it’s one less consideration you have to make. (Mental load is real. Energy expenditure is a vital component to life, and why not save the bulk of it for what really matters to you?)
Even for bigger decisions (what big dream do I really want to pursue? what is the best career path I see for myself? what should I do next in my life? not to sound too vague or grandiose 😜)… often, we know.
You know.
It doesn’t have to be the whole map! You might not know every detail. Perhaps you can’t see exactly where it will end up.
But you already have some depth of knowing deep in your gut. You’re just convinced you don’t.
We convince ourselves we aren’t qualified or don’t have enough data — or enough risk analysis — yet.
But when it comes to the big things, if we’re willing to do some exploring, the answers are usually already within us, and your intuition is strong and true and knowing. You can trust yourself. You can make the big moves.
So! All this to say, this week I’ve really been un-sticking myself from the waffling and from tiny and giant moments of overwhelm with this simple, yet powerful, trick: Move through this. Don’t just get stopped here. Make a decision, you can do it. Choose something, and then take action. The action makes you better.
And — literally — one tiny step at a time, I am making progress! In many areas, in the big and the small, in the important and in the daily mundane.
It can be a miniscule step forward. It can be one little brave yes. You never have to do or know the whole thing at once. Remember the next step, the next five minutes, the current moment — this is all you’re ever responsible for, forever. The giant, unknowable future isn’t where we live and it isn’t where we have power or the ability to act and make a difference. But the present moment is. How are you using yours? Are you spending it well?
To this same tune, whenever you need it, consider making each next step as small as possible. If what you are thinking of as a next step sounds too daunting, break it down into an even smaller fraction and just do that first part.
Can you just make this one choice, without stopping, without delay, without the voice of anxiety and pressure? Can you just quiet all that and choose not to procrastinate? Can you empower yourself towards a bias for action, and watch the actions you take make you better, make you bolder, and carry you to where you want to go?
And if you really actually don’t know, just keep exploring. Keep going. Keep learning and asking for help and leaning in.
Either way, bias for action.
P.S. I was listening to this new Owl City song right before I started writing today.
“We are the new sons of thunder
We are uncrushable diamonds of light
We are the daughters of wonder”“Oh, we are the odd music makers
We are the dreamers of unusual dreams
We all face the forces of nature
But bravely, we'll take great leaps of faith”
❤✨
