Do It (Don’t Think About Doing It)

Do it. Don’t think about doing it. Just do it.

I am all for planning. In fact, I love planning and strategy (now) because I had to intentionally learn it. The consideration of multiple variables in multiple scenarios over time is interesting. However, those scenarios only play out if you are on the path and in action.

Therefore, do it.

The number of times that I have allowed myself to be overwhelmed by the consideration of a task, the mere prospect of it, rather than the actual task itself, is incredible. However, what I have found is that the solution is always in doing the task.

Not considering how, and when, and planning stages to our path. Simply engaging in the quiet, humble, crafting of what we envisioned in our minds. Getting good, clean work done. Every day. Nothing more.

While you are working, and begin to get stressed about everything else that you have to do, just focus. All that you can do is finish what you are working on. Just do it. You have the choice between getting stressed, losing focus, and getting nothing done, or choosing to channel everything that you are feeling into the task at hand.

The old Zen story of how it takes longer to cut down a tree, if you stop everything three strokes to measure how far you have come, wondering when the tree will fall down. Just cut until it falls down.

We have a tendency to overcomplicate things. While everything is genuinely complicated in life if you look at it (the smallest things like an apple are composed of countless atoms, and its colour is actually a specific wavelength of light emitted by an atom at that location on the apple, and things like the smallest consideration of planning for the future are, inherently, complicated) most things don’t have to be.

Its just an apple. It tastes good. Glory to whatever god you believe in. How wonderful to have something strange like this. My future? I want to be this, so I do this every day. I try to save, and I take it as it comes.

Planning and strategy are important, but its not a good plan or strategy to not get the work done because you are worrying about the details. While our plan can take into account all potential problems, dealing with the problems that arise while doing the work is what actually matters. So many of these details will fall into place with time, completely out of your control, and out of your way like a tree falling in the forest.

If you know what you need to do, then do the work. If you don’t know what to do, think about a plan. If you have an idea for your plan while you are working, then write it in your plan. Otherwise, it is not that important. The simple calculus of getting things done.

Do it. Don’t think about doing it. Just do it.