The Art of Science - Thinking versus Doing

There are risks involved in taking an action which could lead to extra costs. However, these risks are much less compared to taking no action and remaining complacent – John F Kennedy.

Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.

Finding a middle ground between thoughts and actions is often a tremendous challenge for most people. The best achievers will always be effective in doing as well as being intelligent thinkers.

Doing is performing a wide range of activities, for instance, giving a presentation, writing briefs, writing stories among others.

Thinking is conceiving ideas and how those ideas could be carried out, for example, identifying the right strategy, identifying gaps in the market, learning in a conference or via research.

One ought to focus on the doing aspect, but you shouldn’t sideline thinking because the more you think, the higher the chances of actually being right.

So this begs the question,” how much time should be spent doing versus thinking?”

Major projects, for example, present various challenges thus it is easy to get stuck in the thinking and planning phase rather than implementation.

Innovative ideas are exhilarating to their discoverers, but due to their unfeasibility, they are often removed or remain on the to-do list.

According to Tory Higgins and his other colleagues in the field of psychology, human beings have two systems of motivation that is the thinking system and doing system. We usually only have the ability to use one at any given time.

Those that focus more on the thought process often end up not getting involved in any meaningful action.

Progress is only achieved through action in various aspects of our lives be it education, career or personal life.

You ought to act if you want results.

Steven Pressfield writes, “Do the work: Overcome Resistance and Get Out of Your Own Way, Don’t think. Act. We can revisit and revise on the matter once we have acted. But we cannot achieve anything unless we act upon it.

Your actions define you.

Thomas Jefferson says, ”Want to know who you are? Act! Don’t ask. Actions delineate and define you.”

Start doing and push yourself to the limit and you stand a better chance of achieving your dreams.

Don’t talk about it, just implement in order to achieve.

If you do not take up the risk and implement them, you are never going past the thinking stage of turning thoughts into actual results.

Ignore the challenges and weaknesses because those will not get you anywhere.

Embrace the good consequences of pursuing a thought and making it actionable otherwise getting an excuse of why you should not do something basically means that you will never get it done.

Instill the habit of performing actions. Do not over plan and under implement.

However, planning and the thought process to any action is vital. The more you think, the more you actually get it right. Moreover, for the purpose of achieving one's objective, “Act!”

If you want to get into songwriting you can actually go to music class, and there you will be taught the basics or you may talk to the best songwriters in the business, but that will not make you the best too. You will be given the tools but you are responsible for getting the job done, and that is by writing the songs yourself.

The actions you take can turn you into an overachiever.

Doing nothing and thinking about doing something but not actually doing it is basically one and the same thing.

Thinking about something and not doing it will not get you to achieve greater heights in the ladder of success. By putting an idea on the to-do list, you will have piled a lot of ideas in there that they may actually never come into fruition.

The real progress is achieved via a good balance of precision and action.

For instance, in the world of Finance and Trade, you don’t actually turn pro by only reading those accounting and finance books but by learning on the job and practicing daily.

Not implementing ideas or activities is actually more stressful than the opposite.

You are only going to end up with a huge chunk of activities on the to-do list thereby you ought to take them off your list and schedule a deadline for each activity.

Lack of a deadline or priorities will never get anything done.

The benefits of actions are enormous.

There is a great surge of pride that comes with it. Once you start a momentum builds that carries you to the end with a significant purpose of achievement, fulfillment, and accomplishment.

 Gregg Swanson is a peak performance consultant and human potential coach and has authored several books and numerous articles on peak performance. Gregg specializes in developing mental strength in individuals that desire to reach their full potential. He has developed a unique online training program “Develop the Mental Strength of a Warrior.” You can also pick up your free eBook,” Why Change is So Hard” by going HERE.