The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing – Walt Disney

As someone who has greatly benefited from this quote, the mentality of ‘quit talking and begin doing’, has become a central part of my life. Today, we’ll cover two questions.

• What happens when we’re all talk?
• What happens when we take the leap and start taking action?

I’m sure you know of someone who constantly talks about their goals. I’m going to start this business. It’s going to be the next big thing. Just you wait. However, as time passes, you never see them putting in any work towards achieving that goal. I’m going to be honest, that was me for a large portion of my life.

Every chance I got; I would get on my high horse and proudly tell people of all the ‘great things’ I had planned. Friends. Family. Anyone who would give me the time of day. From personal experience, here are some things that start to happen to you when you’re all talk.

Unhealthy expectations 

Humans are a fascinating species. We have the special ability to imagine ourselves in future scenarios. Most of the time when we think about our goals, we don’t think of the process of getting there, we simply fast-forward our thoughts to the finish line. And that’s where the problem lies. 

When we’re all talk, we may start to place unrealistic expectations on ourselves. If I don’t work 80 hours a week, then I will never be that future version of myself. How do you think that would make you feel if you’ve only ever worked 20 hours a week. I need to be exercising twice a day, or I will never have that dream body. Once again, how would these expectations make you feel, if you’ve only exercised a couple of times in your life.

If you’re not taking action, all talking will do is create a larger gap between where you want to be, and where you are. Eventually, the gap becomes so vast that it becomes terrifying to take the leap.

Wasting time

You may not notice it but we spend a concerning amount of time communicating with people around us. I mean, of course we have to. One of the reasons why humans are so evolved is because of our ability to communicate with each other. However, what we have to realise is that communication costs one important thing. Time.

There’s only so many hours in the day to truly get work done. If you remove the time we spend eating, sleeping, on the toilet, and commuting, you quickly realize that time is precious. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should never talk about our future plans to our friends/family. However, if that time could be better used actually putting that plan into motion, then you know what you have to do.

So, let’s say you eventually take the leap and start taking action towards your goals. What sorts of things can you expect to learn along the way?

How to fail quickly and improve faster 

When we start any task, there is always the risk of failure. It’s completely unavoidable. So when you start doing, you will eventually stumble over and fail. However, don’t be discouraged, as this is the start of a wonderful process of improvement. 

By adopting a fail fast, and improve faster mentality, you’ll start to see failure as a quick way to see where you’re lacking. Did you fail because you didn’t have enough of a certain skillset? Well, now you know exactly what next steps you need to take. If you were simply in the talking stage, then there’s no way you would have ever discovered this flaw.

Useful article:

Is Failure A Part Of Success?

How to Hold yourself accountable 

One of the most difficult aspects part of this process of ‘doing’ is holding yourself accountable enough to keep on track. 

Research from earlier this year showed that 43% of people expect to give up on their new year’s resolutions by February. When you quit talking and begin doing, over time you’ll start noticing what things keep you motivated. Are you someone who benefits from setting deadlines. Does binging motivational videos get you hyped to go. You’ll never discover these things about yourself until you start doing! 

Useful article:

Why accountability is important to understanding failure

Conclusion 

If there’s one lesson that I would want to pass down to my younger self, it would be to quit talking about all the amazing things you’re going to do. Instead, start working towards those goals. In reality, people rarely care about what we say, people tend to pay more attention to what we do. So, get out there, stop all the talk and start doing. 

Have you noticed yourself doing more talking than acting lately? What’s stopping you from taking that leap of faith? Let me know in the comments below, I’m curious! 

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