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This is a great analogy. My training is in science, so I tend to look at this as lowering my activation energy (a chemistry concept). If I don't have the energy to do the whole task now, what portion can I do now that will help me be able to conquer the whole task later? For example, my household chore nemesis is the dishes. I've found that even if I can't convince myself to do all the dishes today, if I just put away the clean dishes today, then somehow it takes less mental energy to convince myself to do the dishes the next day. I lower my activation energy required to do the dishes because I've cleared one small hurdle. That's similar to your concept of moving the chains. It's how I make myself move forward many days!

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