How to Stop Thinking and Start Doing – The Right Time to Take Action is Now

Preparing and planning are severely overrated. Things would never get underway if we spent an inordinate amount of time preparing for them. One last edit round and then I’ll submit my article, let me research some more options before I commit to anyone, one last talk with the investors and I’ll make a great proposal for my start-up…do these situations sound familiar?

“An idea not coupled with action will never get any bigger than the brain cell it occupied.”

-Arnold Glasow

If you’ve always believed that elaborate preparation guarantees success, it’s time to understand that this formula for success is seriously flawed. Nothing guarantees success. It’s the outcome of many moving parts, many of which are not in our control. I don’t mean to preach that preparing is not essential. 

I have been an advocate for proper planning since forever. Many times things fall apart because proper planning and preliminary preparation were skipped or weren’t carried out properly. But, the other side of the coin is that some people get stuck in the planning and preparation stage, trying to perfect everything. It’s prudent to analyze situations, anticipate outcomes, and do the required preparations. 

The problem comes when you over-prepare. You may be more than ready to take action, but you perceive the opposite. And the longer you prepare, the more you want to delay taking action unnecessarily. There are a lot of reasons why this happens. One of the major ones is analysis paralysis.

“Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.”

-Norman Vincent Peale

The main problem with over-planning is the longer you plan, the longer you’re not in the marketplace. By the time you’re ready to present your ideas or start working, the window of opportunity may have been claimed by someone more proactive. If you find yourself constantly putting off action and fretting too much about preparation, the strategies below can really help you get moving:

1. Face Your Fear of Failure

Let experiences guide you. You don’t have to be perfect all the time. Failure is just success turned inside out. These words may sound cliché but can considerably ease your analysis paralysis tendencies. If you find yourself always ending up in the same rut, then you need to learn to overcome your analysis paralysis prone thinking and apply it so that you can finally take some action.

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit at home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”

-Dale Carnegie

To quote an analogy, have you ever noticed how birds teach their young ones to fly? They simply push them out of the nest, not once fearing what will happen if the baby injures itself. They rely on experience and instinct, not preparation. Many a times, they fail but that doesn’t stop them from trying again.

Experiential learning strengthens your instincts and over time, you start understanding what will work and what won’t. But this will happen only if you expose yourself to failure. You need to be open to learning maybe even from those you consider under qualified to teach. 

2. Follow the 80/20 Rule

Focus on your best assets and use them to create maximum value – this is the core principle behind the 80/20 rule. And it has helped businesses grow their revenues and individuals make the most out of their productive hours.

Identify those 20% requirements that can give 80% of the final output. Work backwards from the product you’ve envisioned and list out all the components that you plan to put into it. Then, drill down upon the essentialities (“must-haves”, must not be more than 20% of total required input) and keep the “good to have” for a later time. If you put together the must-haves you’ll have a fully-functional Minimum Viable Product (MVP)and will be able to do MVP testing. Minimum investment for maximum output- now, that’s productivity. Improvisation can happen later. Don’t let the details bog you down. 

3. Get Moving

Have you been putting off something for the longest time, citing under-preparedness as the reason? A task that you don’t particularly enjoy? A meeting you’ve been worried about? Preparation here may be your excuse for escapism.

“There is only one proof of ability – action.”

-Marie Ebner-Eschenbach

Take a small step towards your goal. If you fail, try plan B. The best thing about experimenting on a small scale is that you won’t suffer huge losses as you could if your elaborate planning met an adverse end. Adversities also teach us something valuable. Take those teachings and incorporate them in your next steps.

And if your micro step fares well, you’ll feel bolstered to go ahead. Since you’ve already committed to the task, there are lesser chances of a rollback and going forward is the only way out. 

Setting internal deadlines can work wonders for people who find themselves spending way too much time preparing than doing. Build urgency into your system, perhaps write down goals or mark on a calendar. And be relentless about these deadlines. 

Final Thoughts

Commitment to action is not something you’ll achieve overnight. You will have to push yourself and fight tendencies to fall back into old patterns. Instead of accepting your inaction, always try to find the cause for it, and learn ways to overcome it. 

You need to keep moving forward in order to achieve your dreams and stay true to your visions and that includes finding your shortcomings and tackling them head on so that you don’t blame yourself for not going after what you want. 

After all, by taking no action all we do is make sure that we don’t succeed. So, why not use all the planning and preparing and take on the world while you still can?