Just Do It

Have you ever had an urge to DO SOMETHING, anything - to write a blog, to connect with someone on Linkedin, to start up a conversation with a stranger - but the more you thought about it and the more time went by, the less of an "urge" it became? Until - perhaps the next day - it was more like "Hmm... oh well, that was a nice idea, but never mind, got to get on with other things now".

In her powerful TED Talk "How to stop screwing yourself over", Mel Robbins explains the above phenomenon and recommends to act within 5 seconds of that urge to do something. Otherwise your brain will stop you.

Oh, yes it will.

We have internal safety mechanisms in place that stop us from doing anything even slightly unfamiliar. We've all had this have we not - the little voice of a gremlin within saying "But what if...(followed by a pretty much endless list of possible scenarios apparently leading you look like a complete fool)?"

Most of us live too much inside our heads instead of truly living a life. "But what if...?" puts a powerful STOP on whatever it was your Subconscious (or intuition, or "gut", or however else you want to call it) wanted you to do. We overthink the consequences of our actions and end up not even trying. Because it's COMFORTABLE to be in the comfort zone.

The truth is that it's in those moments when you've got the urge TO DO something... a miracle can be just moments away.

Here's the thing. When I saw Mel Robbins' TED Talk A YEAR AGO, I immediately KNEW I had to connect with her. Did it happen? What happened was I got a little voice from my little gremlin: "Don't be silly... Someone like HER would never have the time to get back to you. And why WOULD she anyway??". Yesterday I had the urge to watch that TED Talk again.

After watching it I had that urge to connect with her again. "Just do it", I thought this time, before the "But what if...?" gremlin gets in the way again! After all, what's the worst that can happen? She won't reply? So what?

Was I amazed that Mel Robbins accepted my request for connection and wrote back to me? I thought it was a miracle.

What miracles are just a quick message or a quick "hello" away for YOU? Instead of "But what if...?" how about "But why not?"

So, this weekend, when you have that urge to do something... get out of your head and JUST DO IT.