Progress: The Power of Small Wins
Chapter summary from Essentialism by Greg McKeown.
Big change often fails because it demands heroics. This chapter argues for small wins: incremental progress that builds momentum and makes the essential sustainable.
Small wins work because they reduce the psychological barrier to starting. When the next step is tiny, you are less likely to postpone. Over time, these small completions build confidence and create a visible trail of progress that fuels further effort.
Progress is also a selection tool. When you focus on one essential goal and move it forward daily, you expose what supports it and what distracts from it. The noise becomes easier to ignore because you can see the cost of switching.
The essentialist doesn’t wait for perfect conditions. They build momentum through modest actions, repeated, until depth becomes normal and the important stops being optional.
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