So, I’m a chronic over-thinker. I plan until I’m blue in the face, psyching myself out until I don’t even want to take action anymore. Even when I know I need to. Sometimes it works, giving me extra perspective and time to work out how I feel about things. But sometimes (often enough) it doesn’t. And that’s what I want to talk to you about today.
If this sounds a little bit like a recent post of mine, that’s because it is. Or, well, it’s related. You can find my post about not getting hung up on the big picture here. It’s called “Just for Today” and discusses a perspective of letting go of all the plans and worries and expectations and just focus on what you know you need to be doing today.
And this approach to looking at things is very important. In many ways, it’s good preparation for this conversation we’re having now. About the mindset behind it. But after you get that perspective shift, there’s still another step. Action.
Getting things done
So, we all know Nike. “Just do it.” A lot of us have feelings about that slogan. Maybe it feels vaguely inspirational or almost aggressive, like you’re being challenged. But in our daily lives, how many of us really try to live out the idea of just getting up/out/down/whatever and doing stuff? I would venture to say, not many of us.
You know, I wouldn’t classify myself as the queen of personal productivity by any means. That being said, most of my lack of getting things done really does come down to procrastination and psyching myself out. The one thing I’ve found that helps that is to almost trick myself into getting things done quickly–before I can talk myself out of it.
There’s a brief moment that comes in between remembering your goal and the uncomfortableness of the thought of attending to it. If you can catch that moment and get into motion right then, you will (with repetition) become an action person. It doesn’t mean you’ve suddenly become more disciplined or anything. You just took advantage of your own human nature.
The book that opened me up to this concept first was The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins. It was years ago since I read it, but this simple concept stuck with me as the single best way to overcome my own nonsense.
What about effort and “doing my best”?
There will be days when your best that you can do is definitely not the best you’ve ever done. That’s fine. And if you’re looking for that conversation, you can find more on that by clicking here. But the point is that you can always do what you can manage, right now. And that will always be worth something. Progress, no matter how small, is good. Maybe not good enough in the long run, but it’s still something to be recognized.
Start doing stuff, all the stuff you know you need to get done. And do it before you can remember that it’s extra effort or boring or whatever excuses that you know you’re going to tell yourself. You’ll be amazed at the productivity that follows when you don’t give yourself the chance to get in your own way.
