“Do the thing, and you will have the power.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everyone is capable of great ideas. We’ve all had them, and we’ve all experienced what it’s like to be excited about something that came up on our own.
It makes us feel unique, creative, and innovative. But why don’t we ever actually pursue these ideas?
In his book Psycho-Cybernetics, Maxwell Maltz makes a very intriguing statement that has enabled many of my own students to dramatically improve their performance. The initial problem that my students faced was actually a universal problem in many of my own personal relationships.
It always seemed to me that people were great at talking about what they wanted to do, but seldom did they actually sit down and put in the work to do it. You may have experienced this in your own relationships, but truth be told, we are all guilty of this.
Many cynical people will make the argument that this happens because people are lazy or just don’t have enough drive. I profoundly disagree. In my experience in working with entrepreneurs and students, this is absolutely not the case and in fact, the real problem is that we have all been chasing the wrong solutions for a very long time.
I have discovered that people have all the drive in the world to do the things that they want. That is, if drive is the unwavering force that compels you to want to do something. But nonetheless, the fact that a person can dream up some sort of huge possibility for themselves is often enough to motivate them. So what’s stopping us?
The real truth is that people are paralyzed because of a fear of failure.
I am often reminding my students to, “Think less and do more.”
We’ve all been there before. We think up some new and amazing opportunity to do something great, we can see ourselves performing at the best of our ability in our minds, and most importantly, we know that it is all possible. Sometimes just imagining ourselves in the presence of a goal already being accomplished is enough to motivate us to do something big.
Why this happens is a phenomenon that writers, consultants, entrepreneurs, and psychologists have been trying to cure for ages. But the most profound understanding that has been revealed is that we just have a fear of getting started.
As the age old mantra goes, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” But what they don’t tell you is that the first step is the most difficult to take.
When it comes to our goals and ambitions, we fear what others might think of us, or what people might say if things don’t go according to plan, or how the world might respond when we say that we couldn’t do it.
But fear exists nowhere except in our own minds.
Above my desk I have Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote that reads:
“Do the thing and you will have the power.”
The truth is simple. We don’t always know all the answers when we need them. In fact, we hardly know any of the answers to any problem or idea when we first begin any undertaking.
The most important thing, however, is that we just do the thing.
Just get started and I can guarantee that you will find the power (the solutions, the help, the resources, etc.) as you go. No one starts out perfect, and no one changes the world in just a few meager attempts.
Success is the culmination of attempts, changes, improvements, failures, most importantly, just getting started.
The Successful People Just Get Started
Returning to my famous mantra to my students, “Think less and do more,” I have often by tested and tried by a brave student who asks, “But isn’t that just being naive?”
My response is always, “Yes. And no.”
In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, talks about the difference between observing and perceiving.
Observing is when we simply become aware of things that are happening around us and nothing more. In a court case, the jury first attempts to become aware of the evidence for exactly what it is, without trying to uncover any sort of deeper meaning behind it. In a medical situation, a doctor takes record of all things that are wrong with a person, before trying to connect any dots or try to make any sort premature diagnosis.
When we observe, we just become aware. In dreaming up some sort of goal or forming some sort of ambition, this is the step where you decide what it is that you want to do. It is seeing yourself in the presence of having already achieved it.
Perceiving is when we actively try to dig up some sort of deeper meaning behind the subjective things that happen around us. Maybe your significant other hasn’t answered the phone in a few hours. Does that mean that he or she is cheating? While this seems ridiculous, this is human nature. But just how a muscle can be strengthened over time, the ability to suppress your desire to perceive everything is just the same.
But why would we want to suppress our desire to perceive?
Before we get started on any huge project or attempt at a goal, we first observe. We notice the thing in our minds that we wish to do. We see it in our imagination, we try to feel what it is, we try to explain it and make it very clear to ourselves, and most importantly, just like the doctor, we are cataloging the “symptoms of success” that would create the outcome that we want. This is all good to do and absolutely necessary. At this point, we are not paralyzed, but rather, we are excited and we are motivated because we now know what it is that we are destined to achieve.
But then the perceiving mind takes over and we start to question everything.
“What are people going to think?”
And at this point, we are paralyzed. We have thought too much, and we have successfully formed outcomes in our mind that do not exist. We have literally created stories, events, and excuses in our minds that do not exist in the real world. Unfortunately, this is where the majority of people throw in the towel.
But not you, because the cure for this problem is a lot simpler than you might think.
While choosing to fight through the perceiving period is noble, many people go about this in the wrong way. In their efforts, many people will read books on self help and goal setting, listen to TED Talks, ask for advice, talk to friends, and so on, all of which are great tools to grow internally, but in reality, are in opposition to the solution.
The true solution is to just get started. When we compare ourselves to people that are already successful and have already “made it,” we paralyze ourselves and ask unnecessary questions like, “Why can’t I be like that already?” All while forgetting that those people were once beginners themselves.
Every expert was once a beginner who just got started. They just did the thing and they found the power to do it.
When we make ourselves do the thing, we have already overcome one of the greatest obstacles in our way: the first step. By choosing to just start and ignore the perceptions of your mind, you are placing yourself into an elite that has also overcome that same obstacle. When we start, we are choosing to move in the direction of where we want to be.
“When There is a Will, There is a Way”
This is one of my favorite quotes, another of which I have had framed.
We are all world class excuse makers, myself included, and we have the profound ability to make excuses for why we haven’t achieved the things that we want. Maybe we didn’t have the money, maybe we didn’t have the time, or maybe, we were just lazy.
But as I mentioned before, none of these assumptions are true. As cliche as it sounds, when there is a will to do something, there is a way. The people that we all regard as geniuses, the ones who have changed the world, are people who just got started on the things that everyone else called crazy.
In essence, genius is when you are finally able to make the “impossible” things in your imagination a reality. Only then do people stop telling you that something is impossible and begin to ask you, “How did you do that?”
And your answer will be, “I just got started.”
Always remember that the minute that you say that something can’t be done, you’ll be swiftly interrupted by someone who is already doing it. This I can promise you.
Instead, the question you should be considering is, “How can I make this possible?”
When there is a will to do something, there is a way. Maybe it won’t be easy, maybe it will take some patience, or maybe it will severely test all of our will and strength, but somehow, there is a way.
Find not the reasons why something can’t or shouldn’t happen. This is a waste of your dreams and a poison to your ambition. Instead, do the thing that you believe to be possible and you will have the power to find the resources. The most successful people in life choose to just get started. That’s the bottom line. And while it may be strenuous and difficult, take yourself back the place that made you want to start in the first place.
Just do the thing, and you will have the power.
Read more at www.thepolymathinstitute.com
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