JUST DO IT

“Take time to deliberate but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go.” – Napoleon Bonaparte

Lost in thought again.

Coming up with a new game plan again.

Strategizing my next move to get me to my next goal.

And…never taking action.

When I was a kid, I had an obsession for strategy. I loved the thought of orchestrating and assembling new things. My problem was that I never put those strategies into action.

For example, I used to spend hours on the weekend as a kid playing sports video games. MLB, Madden, NBA 2K. Great. Fucking. Games.

What was unique about the many hours (*cough* days) invested into them wasn’t me actually playing those games. As embarrassing as this is to say, the majority of that time was spent updating rosters and drafting new teams. In other words, I would spend multiple hours drafting a personalized team of players, play one actual game with that team, and then decide that I needed to draft and assemble a whole new team.

What in the actual fuck Cory?!

Who does that?

Me. That’s who. And apparently I’m one of many that do this.

As I’ve progressed through life, I have seen this bizarre little quirk of mine manifest in other areas.

“I’m going to start a podcast.”

So I spent hours re-recording the first episode just to scrap the entire thing.

“Fuck the podcast, I’m going to write a book!”

More hours spent writing chapters for my book just to throw away the whole idea.

What is unique about the situation is that I found myself investing so much time and thought into planning things that I never actually took the plunge. As soon as it was game time, I would talk myself out of the entire plan that I had spent so much time developing. Almost like a form of self-sabotage.

Having a strategy is never a bad thing. Developing an actual plan of attack is what successful people do. But successful people also put it into action. Ready or not, they choose to move forward and make things happen. A plan is nothing without the action to back it up.

I think many people struggle with this concept.

You spend so much time in your own head, trying to configure the perfect plan. But as you get closer to implementing it, you quit.

“It’s never going to work.”

“What if no one likes it?”

“What if no one reads it?”

“What if no one listens to my podcast?”

The truth is, you will never know until you actually put your plan into action.

Those questions will forever stir around in your head like mashed potatoes until you decide to take that first step.

You’ve made the effort. You know what you want to do. Now go do it.