Do Something Now

Here’s a question I get a lot. “Hey, I really want to do ( some cool project or life change ), and I have it all figured out, but there’s no way for me to ( overcome one single obstacle )”.

I like receiving questions and am usually happy to answer them, but this one drives me up the wall. There’s NO WAY? Really?

Notice that the question isn’t “Hey, I really want to do ( some cool project or life change ), and I have it all figured out, but I can’t figure out how to ( overcome one single obstacle ). So far I’ve tried ( one possible solution ) and ( another possible solution ) and ( a third possible solution )”.

I’ve never gotten that question.

Here’s how doing hard things actually works: You work on it until you hit a roadblock. Once you hit the roadblock, you try to figure out a solution. If that doesn’t work, you try something else, and keep trying new things until you finally solve the problem.

Thinking isn’t enough. If you think you can’t solve a problem, try anyway. It’s way too easy to think ourselves out of hard work. Decide that you can’t conquer something only once you’ve come at it from every possible angle.

Most people fail in their mind well before the action ever surfaces to real life.

A common manifestation of this question is people wanting to travel but not knowing how to make money on the road. Fair enough– making money on the internet is a bit tricky because if you know an easy way to do it you don’t tell anyone, and the hard ways take time and effort.

You wouldn’t believe the simple things that stop people, though. I remember one guy saying he couldn’t afford the web hosting and domain name. That’s about five dollars a month. You mean to tell me that you think you’re going to have a successful business, but you aren’t scrappy enough to find a way to come up with five bucks a month?

I find that a lot of my advice boils down to this: do something now. Just do something. Move in any direction that isn’t the polar opposite of your goal. Thinking isn’t a substitute for action, it’s leverage for your action. Without action, thinking won’t get you anywhere.

Do something now.