When to pick The Scary Thing

William Liao
1 min readMay 15, 2023

The Same Thing is what you did yesterday. It’s predictable and reliable.

The Scary Thing is what you have not done but want to do. You have no idea if it will work. It might fail spectacularly. That’s what makes it scary.

If you’re not sure which Thing to do, spend a moment reflecting on this question: “am I tired of The Same Thing?”

Don’t think too long about it. Go with your gut, it’s probably right.

If you are tired of The Same Thing, then your best option is The Scary Thing.

Sometimes it takes 1000 nudges before we act because change is hard.

Let this be the nudge that does it.

Doing The Scary Thing will suck in the same way jumping into a pool of cold water sucks.

The first part is a shock to the system.

But then you adapt, and you’re so glad you did it.

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William Liao

Taiwanese American, daily blogger of ideas about impactful work in service of others, photographer (ephemera.photography)