I focus on the small steps I can take, not the big picture.

Runners count lampposts near the end of a marathon. Not miles — lampposts, and sometimes just the next parked car.

The big number becomes unusable at precisely the point where it's most demoralising.

Nothing is wrong with the big picture. It's for choosing a direction, once. Carried every hour, it turns into dead weight.

Whatever you're facing has a next lamppost: one email, one form, one conversation, twenty minutes. The route doesn't shorten for being examined all at once. It gets covered in the only unit ever available, which is the next small piece of it.