45 | Divide to conquer
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier—not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hello friends,
I had a hard time in the last few days. I wanted to achieve a lot of things, but I kept on feeling blocked, almost paralyzed. What to do, where to start, and if I do get started, where to stop?
The fear of the unknown
We tend to be afraid of what is unknown. It’s not that much about the given object of attention, but about what we know of it.
As kids, it was monsters under our bed. We didn’t have any real proof of their existence, yet the mere possibility was scary enough 🤷🏾♂️
As adults, we are... not much better. Instead of monsters, we now are afraid of deadlines, of responsibilities and overall of the possibility of failure.
Why? Because we don’t take the time to clarify what we are up against.
There is no single step to success
As humans, we are bad at assuming how much effort or time it could take to achieve something or get somewhere. We both underestimate and overestimate at the same time.
We overestimate the complexity of the task.
We underestimate the number of steps needed to achieve that goal
In both situations, we see the task as a monolith that can’t be broken into pieces. Our instinct is to see the mountain on the horizon as a single challenge to overcome.
On the opposite, a wiser and less stressed individual would rather see the mountain as a succession of little hills and plateaus where (s)he could take breaks.
Divide to conquer
The same idea applies to any field you can think of.
You can’t just sit down and write a book in a day. But you can write a chapter every day.
You can’t study for an exam in one day, especially not the day before.
But you can write down the concepts you’re confused about and work on them one by one.You can’t edit a video in one hour, but you can divide it into many repetitive steps.
I couldn’t write this newsletter in one go, but I could decide on the subject, write the first draft, improve it, and add complementary content before sending it.
Always divide to conquer. We can’t process anything as a whole (even computers can’t).
Clarify
When I feel confused, I try to:
Write down a list of everything I have to do, in every area.
Find the tasks which confuse me the most and try to figure out why:
What am I afraid of and what prevents me from progressing?
What is expected of me?
What is the minimal next step I could take?
For every task that is too big, I divide it into smaller tasks which could be done between a few minutes and a few hours.
Now it’s not foolproof nor is it a groundbreaking idea, but it does help. Nothing is inherently impossible for us to do. Usually, things are only too big and challenging until we divide them and conquer.
"That which we persist in doing becomes easier—not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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— What I loved and learned this week
📱 One tool I'm loving: Audible. From December to February I probably listened to more than 70 hours of audiobooks on Audible, I absolutely love it. Currently, as a little pleasure to myself, I’m finishing the Harry Potter saga (once more, yes 😅) but this time, in Spanish 🇲🇽🇪🇸! The whole series was narrated by Carlos Ponce, and I honestly have never “experienced” a story so deliciously, especially in a foreign language. I recommend!
🗣 Quote of the week: “I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
— Thomas Edison
— What I created this week
Nothing much this week as I was (and still am) mostly busy on exams and other priorities, but I have ideas for upcoming content and projects that I can’t wait to share with you very soon. ✨
One thing I was reminded of this week…
Did you like this newsletter? I would really appreciate it if you would share it with your friends, who might like it as well! 😇
See you next week 👋🏾
Mathieu Céraline.