Stop Learning and Start Doing

Learning is super important. But if you get stuck in learning, you might never start doing.

You see, learning can become a distraction to doing. It’s still a good thing, and you continually want to educate yourself on whatever serves you best. But you don’t want that education to get in the way of taking action.

I understand that you are learning with the intention of eventually getting a result of some sort. Maybe you are learning about social media so you can grow your author platform. Or perhaps you are learning how to create and use a WordPress.org website so you can build an online business. Or maybe you’re learning how to be a good parent so you’ll be just that when your baby arrives.

All well and good, but so is on-the-job training.

Learning can become a way to avoid taking action. And the actions you take leads to the progress and results you desire.

Just Do It

Last night I spent time with a friend who was feeling overwhelmed. She had learned too much and had way to much research and couldn’t figure out how to take action. She was stuck, and couldn’t put to use what she had learned.

She said, “You seem to just do it. You take action. You don’t wait…”

“Yep,” I replied. “I like to throw the spaghetti on the wall and see if it sticks.”

Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes it flies back in my face, which can be embarrassing!

Here’s the thing, though. If I don’t “Just do it,” as the Nike slogan goes, I may not do it at all.

I often put it on the task on a to-do list, and if I do get it done, it isn’t right away.

Get It Done Not Perfect

Just doing it might mean that I don’t get it right or perfect, but I get it done. And I can do it again and perfect later.

I might need to learn how to do something. For example, I didn’t know how to do a Facebook Live session. So I did a bit of research, asked a few colleagues, and then…I got out my phone, and I shot my first Facebook Live video.

In that situation, I prepared a little. I researched a bit. And then I went for it.

I did the end result.

You need to do the same: Stop preparing for the result. Do the result instead.

Yes, the end result might turn out better if you spend more time preparing. But think about it…

If you typically spend 10 hours preparing for each result you’d like to accomplish, that’s a lot of time over the course of your lifetime spent preparing rather than doing.

Apply that to any area of your life. You’ll realize you’re spending a ton of your life in preparation for life rather than living it.

Get in the Game!

Athletes and musicians, for example, have to learn and practice what they learn so they perform to the best of their ability. But for most of them, practice is a lot like playing. They don’t sit in the locker room studying how to play piano or hit a tennis ball for hours. They put fingers on the keys or pick up the racket and spend time hitting balls.

A football player may study specific plays, and then he gets out on the field and executes them. In a game, he executes them more correctly because he took action. His practice came in the form of doing as did his learning.

Athletes and musicians deliberately practice a skill. They do the thing. For them, practice is doing the thing. They get better with each practice session, each game, each concert.

Learn by Doing

Do the result, and you will learn in the doing. And you’ll do the result—get the result you desire—sooner rather than later.

Don’t get me wrong. You can still learn…and you should! But if you regularly study something for those 10 hours before you take action, but that time in half…or even by 75 percent.

Then do.

Prepare for less time before you take action. In fact, spend more time doing than preparing every time.

Let me know how fast you get results when you put your learning into action fast!

Photo copyright: Inara Prusakova/Shutterstock.com and Anna Yakimova/123Rf.com