There’s one problem with every single thing you’ve ever read. It affects every book you’ve read, every guide book you’ve downloaded and each and every blog post you’ve ever read – including this one.
They all have the same issue:
They don’t do the work for you.
You can read inspirational quotes until your vision gets blurry. You can read and re-read about writing a better story with your life. You can even laugh at me when I try to do triathlons on a mountain bike. You can do all that, but here’s the hard truth – reading can help you learn how to do something, but it won’t actually do it for you.
All the reading in the world won’t do anything until you decide to take action.
No one else can do it for you. I can’t do it for you. I would, if I could, but I can’t. Sorry.
It’s your life. Ultimately, it’s up to you to make any changes to it. Other people can help so make sure you surround yourself with good ones, but you still have to do the work. You have to initiate it. You have to take the first step.
There’s two ways to take this:
- It’s all up to me. I have to do it all and I’ll never end up doing it because I’ve never done it before. Poor me.
- It’s all up to me. I get to take control of my life. If I don’t like the way my life is going, I get to write my own story. How awesome is this?
You get to choose which way to take it, but whatever you do, it’s your life – don’t spend it all shoulding yourself. Just because you haven’t done something before, doesn’t mean you can’t do it.
It’s really easy to get caught up reading interesting thoughts by interesting people and convince yourself that you’re getting closer to your goals just by reading about other people getting closer to theirs. I know – I’ve done it a lot, but please don’t confuse simply reading with actual doing. Constantly ask yourself: are you creating or just consuming?
If you’re not creating anything or starting something yet, start somewhere. Anywhere. It doesn’t have to be big:
- Want to run a marathon? Start by running 1 mile.
- Want to help fight global poverty? Start with helping 1 person.
- Want to be a world-class painter? Paint 1 piece this weekend.
- Want to start your own million-dollar business? Find 1 client.
Whatever you want to do, start small. In fact, start smaller than small, but at the very least – START.
Do something impossible, today and take that first step. Then tell me what you’re going to be doing in the comments below.
If you take the time to read this blog & enjoy it, thank you. I really do appreciate it. But, if reading is getting in the way of you doing something impossible, then please focus less on reading and more on doing. Seeing other people actually set out and do impossible things is much more rewarding than having a huge subscriber count.
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Thanks for the post Joel. We all need that constant poke to remind us that greatness is achieved through action and actually getting stuff done rather than being an armchair theorist!
Often what we read is so inspiring we almost get the high of the person actually doing the thing. The problem of course is that the ‘high’ is only temporary and to give it a bit more permanence we need to actually go out there and take action!
Thoughts are good. Actions is better =).
Well said! It’s not enough to think, we have to do. Something, anything; movement begets more movement.
My three things today are to go snowshoeing, get a blog post written (I have two I’m struggling with right now, and three more waiting), and renew my car tabs. Not all of those are business-related, but they’re all things I’ve been ignoring this week that will bite me if I don’t get them done.
Snowshoe-ing? Now that’s a new one :). Now go get them done!
Snowshoeing! It’s fun, and a pretty good workout. I can go to the park and tromp around as long as we have three inches of snow. Working up to finding a place to go for a trek.
Got my tabs, did the tromp, now working on the blog post. It’ll get done before I go to bed! (My work hours are not the standard ones…)
So true. This is similar to what I’ve heard from the Internet Business Mastery podcast about “just in time learning”. Instead of trying to learn everything you can find information on, only read books or blog posts that can help you where you are at in your life right now.
The inaction of reading and learning might give you great ideas and expand your horizons, but you need to make sure that you aren’t just using them to put off what you know you need to be working on.
My impossible thing for the last month was posting on my blog everyday. Consider it done.
You still got 4 days left 😉
Touche. To explain…. I launched my site on December 27th, so that’s why it’s a month (30 days).
The Gregorian calendar ain’t the boss of me!
in that case – well done sir, well done.
Joel –
Great insights into what holds a lot of people back.
I read the blogs for inspiration. Proof that you CAN do things you put your mind to. In business, in fitness, in life.
I am sure a lot of people read blogs for the same reasons I do, however, like you said in your blog, the translation from online inspiration to real life activity is where people fall flat.
Those of us that can turn that inspiration into real world success are few and far between. I hope this blog makes a few more converts.
Inspiration can only take you so far. The place where inspiration turns into action is where impossible things happen.
I so agree with this – the ultimate truth – reading or learning about something won’t change your life – that only happens when you get up and put into action what you’ve read or learned.
As a bonus, you usually end up learning even MORE by doing, instead of a just reading.
This is the exact reason why I don’t understand marathon lecture sessions for classes in school. I learned way more by being hands on and making mistakes or progress than trying to remember what they said months ago.
I think you are less of a deterent and more of an motivator for people to do the impossible! Keep it up!
Speaking of impossible: Marathon in May (yuck)!
It’s crazy! I’m in week 3 of training :). I’ll keep you posted how it goes. Any races coming up for you?
Week 3 of training huh? Just took another section of the CPA yesterday, which means training starts tomorrow. Here we go!
Let’s Go!
“Let not your learning lead to knowledge. Let it lead to ACTION.” – (not sure who said this)
Great reminder Joel. I’m going to be finishing a post I’ve been writing for over a year on education (definitely gonna need to break it up into multiple posts). I’m thinking a Runyon “Impossible” interview may be in order for this series 🙂
You down for that?
Sure thing – shoot me an email :).
Yes!
I live by my learn, do, teach philosophy. Your inescapable truth holds true to my philosophy and I love it.
You can learn whats true for other people by studying them, but eventually you have to pursue your truth and whats possible for you.
That’s where the true fun lies and you realize the impossible can be possible – agreed?
I love learning what generally works by watching other people, but in order to see what works for me, I have to try a bunch of different stuff for myself :).
Great reminder Joel. Research has it’s place but at some point you have to actually do something otherwise it just becomes another excuse not to do something. It’s the little steps of action that take us to big places.
I guess the one big thing on my list (besides sabbatical stuff) is putting together my e-book. Time to make some headway.
You and me both 🙂 What’s your deadline for it?
My deadline for the e-book is end of February. How about you?
Same time – race ya 🙂
Awesome! Let’s motivate each other with a weekly check-in on what we accomplished. You in?
Done.
Siddhartha to Govinda: “You know, my friend, that even as a young man…I came to distrust doctrines and teachers and to turn my back on them…wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish.”
I have a tendency to fall in love with books and words and ways of thinking-but you so right. A kiss can convey something more than 350 Shakespearean sonnets.
*Some* wisdom is communicable if you listen closely. Still, there’s a lot to be said for learning it first-hand (plus it’s a lot harder to forget).
Great post. Hey Joel, did you ever think establishing this was an impossible feat when you first started?
Thanks Jonathan. What exactly are you referring to me establishing? I’m assuming you’re talking about the blog?
Great post Joel. So very true. Starting small is great advice. I think often we get to focused on the BIG task we’re trying to achieve and we find ourselves overwhelmed. Start with what you can do today and let that guide you. Love it.
Little by little by little 🙂
I find it so liberating to take action – it really makes me feel like I’m in control of my own life.
You are 🙂
You’re quite right. I’ve realized for a long time that all the blogs and internet sites I surf for inspiration and all the books I read for motivation are largely yet another form of procrastination.
“A Million Miles in a Thousand Years,” which you recommended a while back, finally arrived at the library, so that will be my next procrastination project.
But first… I think I’ll lace up the shoes and hit the pavement for a power walk, right now. (Gotta work my way back up to actually, y’know, running.)
Let me know what you think of the read! (It’s a worthwhile procrastination project, in my opinion).
Good luck with the running!
Such a great post. Everyone, not just entrepreneurs, should read this. We don’t need more thinkers. We need more doers.
My thoughts exactly Brandon.