When people start something new—learning a skill, changing careers, getting in shape, trying a new craft—they almost always make the same mistake:

They measure the gap.

The gap between where they are and where they want to be.
The gap between beginner and expert.
The gap between what they know and what others seem to know effortlessly.

And nothing kills momentum faster than staring at the distance between you and someone who has been doing this for ten years.

Comparisons don’t just discourage you.
They distort your reality.

Because the gap is the least important metric in growth.

Instead, you should measure one thing:

The next step.

The gap is a lie your brain tells you

The gap is always exaggerated, emotional, and context-free.

When you compare yourself to someone ahead of you, you’re comparing:

• your first chapter to their twentieth
• your discomfort to their fluency
• your uncertainty to their pattern recognition
• your process to their results

You’re not just comparing unfairly—you’re comparing incorrectly.

The gap doesn’t account for:

• how long they’ve practiced
• how many mistakes they’ve made
• how many iterations they’ve collected
• how many times they started over
• how often they doubted themselves too

The gap shows scale.
It doesn’t show progress.

And scale is irrelevant when you’re a beginner.

Success comes from narrowing your focus, not widening it

High performers think differently:

Beginners look at the entire staircase.
Experts look at the next step.

Beginners want to jump levels.
Experts want to practice movements.

Beginners think about outcomes.
Experts think about repetitions.

The next step is always small:

• Read one page
• Watch one video
• Write one paragraph
• Learn one concept
• Practice one technique
• Fix one bug
• Build one component

Small steps compound.
Big gaps overwhelm.

The next step removes the emotional pressure

When you stop staring at the gap, you stop asking:

• “Am I good enough?”
• “Will I ever catch up?”
• “Am I too far behind?”
• “Why am I not improving faster?”

And you start asking:

• “What’s the next thing I can do?”
• “What’s one small improvement I can make?”

That shift—from judgment to action—changes everything.

The next step is simple.
The next step is attainable.
The next step is progress.

And progress feels good, which means you’re more likely to keep going.

Momentum is built from small wins, not grand achievements

People think motivation comes from big results.

But motivation actually comes from:

• finishing something small
• proving to yourself you’re moving
• seeing real progress
• building trust in your ability to follow through

Tiny wins snowball.

Once you’re moving, the scale of the goal stops mattering.
Momentum takes over.
Consistency becomes easier.
You start to identify as someone who makes progress.

That identity is more powerful than any burst of motivation.

The people who succeed aren’t the ones who obsess about the gap

They’re the ones who ask, every day:

“What’s the next step?”

And then take it.

Over and over.
Day after day.
Step after step.

Until one day, without noticing, the gap you used to fear has disappeared.

Not because you stared at it.

But because you walked past it—
one small step at a time.