There is something I want to talk to you about today that often gets overlooked,
Dismissed or underestimated.
Not because it's not important,
But because it maybe doesn't look impressive.
It doesn't look like transformation,
It doesn't look like breakthrough,
It doesn't look like a life-changing moment.
It looks quite small,
So small that people often ignore it.
And yet,
It is one of the most powerful psychological mechanisms we have access to.
Small win.
If you have ever felt stuck,
Overwhelmed,
Behind or unsure where to begin,
Then this talk is for you.
By the end of this talk,
I hope you will feel clearer about why small wins matter far more than you've been led to believe,
And how you can start using them in a way that creates real movement in your life,
Not in theory,
But in practice.
My name is Martha Curtis,
I'm a psychotherapist and coach,
I work with creatives and support individuals who are or have been in controlling and abusive relationships.
And what I see very often is this.
People don't struggle because they lack insight,
They struggle because the gap between insight and action often feels too big.
So why does big change often don't work?
There is a cultural narrative that change needs to be dramatic.
You set a big goal,
You overhaul your routine,
You become a different version of yourself overnight.
And when that doesn't happen,
The conclusion people draw is,
I lack discipline,
I'm not consistent,
I'm the problem.
But the issue is actually not the person,
It is the scale.
Let's look at research in behavioral science,
Because it shows that when a task feels too large or too undefined,
The brain perceives it as a threat.
What that does is it activates avoidance,
Procrastination,
Shutdown.
So the problem is not motivation,
The problem is activation energy.
And small win is not just a step forward,
It is a signal to your nervous system that movement is possible.
When you complete something small,
Several things happen.
Your brain releases dopamine,
Reinforcing the behavior.
Your sense of agency increases,
The task becomes less abstract.
Your internal narrative shifts from I can't to I just did.
And this is not motivational language,
It is neurobiology.
Small wins reduce resistance.
And when people feel stuck,
They often try to think their way out of it.
They analyze,
They plan,
They wait until they feel ready.
But readiness is often the result of action,
Not the precondition.
A small win bypasses the need to feel ready.
It lowers a threshold.
Instead of asking,
How do I change my life,
You ask,
What is the smallest meaningful action I can take right now?
Let me give you a few examples of what this looks like.
Because a small win is not symbolic,
It is quite specific.
It might look like replying to one message you've been avoiding.
Opening the document instead of finishing it.
Stepping outside for five minutes.
Writing one sentence.
Making one decision you've been postponing.
And those things are not trivial,
They are entry points.
But people resist small wins.
There is often resistance to this idea,
Because small wins don't feel satisfying in the way people expect.
They don't create immediate transformation.
They don't give you a sense of arrival.
And for people who are used to performing,
Achieving or proving themselves,
Small actions can feel insignificant.
But that is exactly why they work.
They bypass perfectionism.
They bypass fear of failure.
They create momentum without pressure.
And here you may want to pause the recording after each question to give yourself some time to reflect.
What is something you have been avoiding because it feels too big?
What is the smallest possible version of that action?
What would count as a win today?
Not ideally,
But realistically.
And by the way,
You don't need a perfect answer.
You just need a starting point.
And one of the deeper effects of small wins is this.
They rebuild trust.
Not in the sense of confidence as a feeling,
But trust as evidence.
Self-trust.
When you repeatedly do what you say you will do,
Even in very small ways,
Your internal system begins to register.
Hey,
I follow through.
Hey,
I can rely on myself.
And that changes everything.
So let's talk about the compound effect.
A single small win is obviously not the goal.
The power lies in repetition.
Because research on habit formation shows that consistency at a small scale is far more effective than intensity at a large scale.
One action repeated becomes a pattern.
A pattern becomes a habit.
And a habit becomes identity.
And this is how change stabilizes.
If you take one thing from this talk,
Let it be this.
You do not need to change everything.
You just need to begin.
And beginning rarely looks impressive.
It looks like one small,
Tiny intentional step.
And if this talk resonated with you,
You might want to share it with someone who feels stark overwhelmed or unsure where to start.
Because sometimes the most powerful shift is not a breakthrough,
It's just a beginning.
Until next time.
