Get Closer to Your Goals by Actually Doing Something

Earlier today I found myself voluntarily standing outside for a few minutes, despite the fact that it was late afternoon, cold... and drizzling (well the weather's actually no surprise, considering the time of the year). So, why did I stand outside? Simple, I needed to hear myself think.

It seems weird to say that I couldn't hear myself think... but what I actually mean is that I needed to think clearly.

At that time I was so overwhelmed by all the things that I needed to do, the short amount of time to things in and generally just feeling 'info-overload,' that I found myself spending a lot of time thinking about everything that I wanted to do, and very little time actually doing anything.

So, I went outside to clear my head and calm down (and to get away from the laptop... seriously, when you're on the internet it's too easy to feel overwhelmed by all the info).

Once your mind is clear, it's easier to put things in perspective and create some sort of strategy that you can act on. Thinking about things is great, but at some point you're going to have to act.

Having brilliant ideas is meaningless if those ideas aren't brought to life. Nor does it matter how grand or noble your goals are, unless you strive to achieve them.

Seriously, if you're not getting any closer to your goals, even if it's like only a small, mini, tiny, fraction (I'm running out of synonyms) of a step closer, then there's not much point in having those goals in the first place.

The point that I'm trying to make here is that at some point you have to go from 'thinking' to 'doing.'

So, if you find yourself being so consumed in your thoughts that you're unable to get anything done...

• take some time out
• clear your mind
• figure out what you're trying to achieve (you may have to prioritize... seriously, as much as you want to do everything... trying to do everything at once is probably what caused you to feel overwhelmed in the first place... well in my case anyway)
• what actions you can do to get to closer to achieving that
• start doing those things (and cut out the unnecessary stuff that's distracting you)

Since you have specific goals, it makes sense that there'll be specific things that you can do to get closer to those goals (If your goal is to get distracted or to take a long time to achieve your goals, then by all means, try to do everything at once)

Get to a point where you're actually doing something... well, something that gets you closer to your goal. You can think about what you need to do all you want, but you're not going to get any closer to achieving those goals unless you actually do something... so go do something.