The secret to getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one.

Progress rarely stalls because a task is too hard. More often it stalls because the task looks too big to approach. The quote places the real obstacle in the gap between intending and beginning, and it suggests crossing that gap by shrinking the job until the first step is small enough to take today. Momentum, it implies, comes from action rather than being a prerequisite for it.

The idea belongs to a long practical tradition, from Laozi's saying that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step to the modern habit of splitting large projects into parts. It also suits the plain, down-to-earth outlook people associate with Twain, though the attribution is doubtful. The line is widely credited to him, but no reliable source seems to confirm it, so it is safest to call it "attributed."

As an example, imagine someone dreading their tax paperwork or a long report for work. Instead of telling themselves "finish the report," they write down "open the file and draft the opening paragraph," and give it twenty minutes. The small start usually proves less daunting than the looming whole, and the next step tends to follow more easily.