Stop Overthinking and just DO IT
Posted on September 03, 2023
Video version of this post:
I've always tended to think more than take action. I love to theorize (that's why I became a mathematician). However, too much thinking and too little action can also harm your life. Your mind will try to trick you into spending more time researching and looking for the "best" program or method to follow. This is pure mental masturbation.
For example, several years ago, I wanted to start lifting weights. While looking for a beginner routine, I chased the "best" one on the web (especially on Reddit). As you may know, there is a lot of debate there. On the one hand, there are proponents of a full-body, 3-day-a-week routine (like Stronglift 5x5). On the other side, we see proponents of a 6-day-a-week split routine. And everything in the middle. I became more confused and worried about choosing the "wrong program."
Your mind loves to think about the "best" choice. The reason for that is resistance. Your mind and body don't want to change. It would rather stay the way they are. In Biology, this concept is called Homeostasis. It's usually used for the equilibrium state our bodies need to survive. However, this concept can also be applied in general context, in particular, to your mind. For survival, Homeostasis is crucial. But if we want to grow ourselves (physically or mentally), we need to fight Homeostasis and break our natural resistance to change.
As another example, for this newsletter, I could start to read the book "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield to prepare this writing. I read this book a couple of years ago. It is about fighting resistance, which is the topic of this newsletter. However, this would be procrastination. I don't need to reread the book. After all, it repeats the same idea over and over again. Most self-help books could be shrunk to one-tenth of the total length if they focused only on the main principles. But to make the book palatable, they fill it with many stories to back up their arguments (notice that I'm doing the same here).
Instead, I started to write about my personal experiences about the topic, taking the core ideas from there. And then, I looked at the highlights I made from the book to see if I wanted to add something else. Doing that saved me several hours of rereading the book. And I beat resistance. After all, all the principles I'm talking about are not new. Still, I can offer you my point of view and how I overcame the problem. One can learn much from other people's experiences – probably more than just learning the "facts."
You won't get anywhere by only consuming content
A map is not the territory it represents, but, if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness.
Please don't misinterpret me here. I love reading and listening to learning materials. However, there is such a thing as "too much content." After all, our minds can only process a certain amount of information, and we forget the rest. On the other hand –especially for self-improvement, acquiring knowledge is insufficient to master the concepts. It is only the first step.
After all, if you don't have the proper maps (the principles I discuss on this webpage), you won't get far enough. But, as the beautiful quote at the beginning of this section points out, the map is not the territory. In our case, the territory is our bodies and minds. All the principles will do is point you in the right direction. Ultimately, you are responsible for "driving there".
Yet, we are lazy and resist making fundamental changes. After all, implementing principles and habits consumes significant amounts of energy and willpower. So, it's no surprise that we avoid it.
The thing is, too much theoretical knowledge without applying it can be not only a waste of time. It can even be detrimental to your self-improvement journey. The reason is that we believe we have understood the ideas, but in reality, it's our minds tricking us.
In the past, I've been a victim of this trap. I've been doing self-development on and off for around ten years. There was a phase where I consumed a lot of pretty advanced concepts from Actualized.org (a great channel, by the way). Almost religiously, I listened to each weekly episode to get my mind blown by such cool ideas such as
- Non-duality
- Spiral dynamics
- Unconditional Love
among others. The problem was that I didn't have the time to grasp the concepts. You can devote years to each one of them. But I deluded myself, thinking that I understood these concepts. In reality, it was a lot of mental masturbation.
My mind did evolve during those years, and I experienced significant levels of personal growth in that period. However, it could have been way more efficient to focus on "the basics." After mastering those principles, I could have started grasping the more advanced teachings.
I hope you avoid this trap and achieve real success in personal development.
Start now (and small)
Ideas are worthless; execution is priceless.
You may be feeling overwhelmed by trying to start a big project in your life. If that's the case, look at my previous post, where I recommend starting small for any big project in your life.
Let me tell you another personal example regarding this project (and to show you that I do what I preach). At this stage, I only focus on posting content once a week and improving my writing and speaking. By the time I have around 50 posts, I will start focusing on growing my audience by using Twitter or similar social media to promote my content. But again, I want to focus on one thing at a time. My free time is limited, and I'm not doing this full-time yet, so I cannot over-extend myself.
It's easy to get confused when facing a big project. You haven't figured out many things yet, but this cannot stop you. That's why starting small is a good idea.
Conclusion
You may be asking: Shouldn't I spend more time looking for the optimal method/routine/diet? After all, I don't want to waste time doing a suboptimal method or routine.
Bullshit. You don't know what's the best routine or method. Start NOW with something, and over time, you will figure out how to improve it or find a better one based on your needs. But you won't know it by only reading posts on Reddit. Don't go and read another book or watch another YouTube video. You will waste your time.
Pick anything reasonable (use your brain!) and start there. You may realize the method is trash. That's great! You learned a lesson. Now you can try a new way.
That's true learning.