In the pursuit of our success, we make plans. We research. We think. We analyze. And sometimes we even take honest to God real actions toward our dreams! But sometimes we don’t act. We get caught up in the possibilities of what may or may not happen.
But far too often we let ourselves over analyze things and we get that old “Paralysis of Analysis”. We fear that things may go wrong, badly or fail and are frozen in inaction. What we forget is that inaction itself leads to things going wrong, badly or failing. Taking action may lead there as well, but only maybe. Inaction ONLY leads to failure.
Actions beget results. Results are neither positive nor negative. How we respond to those results are what give them that positive or negative meaning. If we don’t get the results we want, we can still take that momentum and move forward. Rather than giving the unwanted results a negative meaning, we can frame it as a learning experience or just one try that didn’t work.
Take direct marketing for instance, or any sales work. Someone who is afraid to make phone calls or do the follow-ups fears the rejection and failure of the NO. I know how that feels and used to feel that way too. What I found out was that by just doing the calls and follow-ups you create positive energy and momentum.
Soon you have a fair amount of people in various stages of the prospecting and selling process. When this happens, you no longer have to fear the calls and follow-ups because there is always the next step to move people to. Always something to do.
What we fear is failing and then not knowing what to do next. Our analysis prefers the POTENTIAL failure over the possibility of a REAL failure and not knowing what to do next. We would rather procrastinate than fail because we can always delude ourselves into thinking we are in the game this way.
But you aren’t in the game at all unless you are taking action. Even then, if you take some action and stop, you never really were in the game were you? Taking action is a continuous process. It’s taking the results we don’t want along with the results we do want. If we obsess over possible “failures” then we will eventually stop.
The ONLY way to be in the game is to stop all the analyzing and take action. Doesn’t matter what the action is. An imperfect plan begun today is far superior to a perfect plan begun tomorrow.
