The "Do Something" Principle
In Mark Manson’s book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, he teaches about the “Do Something” Principal and it goes like this:
We all know a story or two or ten of people who have faced failure and let it be the motivator to forge ahead. Oprah Winfrey. Walt Disney. J.K. Rowling. Bill Gates. It’s why we love books like Eat Pray Love, watch movies like Under the Tuscan Sun and get a bolt of inspiration by musicians like Chance the Rapper who refuse to sign with a record label.
But what about the rest of us filled to the rim with ideas, but are still waiting on that major emotional life event to give us the confidence to go for it?
Mark Manson says that for many of us the recipe we have adopted is:
Inspiration > Motivation > Action.
But in fact…
“Your actions create further emotional reactions and inspirations and move on to motivate your future actions. Taking advantage of this knowledge, we can actually reorient our mindset in the following way:
Action > Inspiration > Motivation
If you lack the motivation to make an important change in your life, do something - anything really.”
He continues on to share a story Tim Ferriss' once shared about a novelist who had written over 70 novels…
“Someone asked the novelist how he was able to write so consistently and remain inspired and motivated. He replied, “Two hundred crappy words per day, that’s it.” The idea was that if he forced himself to write two hundred crappy words, more often than not the act of writing would inspire him; and before he knew it, he’d have thousands of words down on a a page.”
We all have lofty goals. Run a marathon. Lose weight. Travel. Land that dream job. Retire well.
Do you know why most of us never reach our goals?
We 1. Don’t focus on just one goal at a time. and 2. We don’t create a plan.
Plans can sound suffocating, I know, but without them we are but sailors without a compass.
As a coach I often create plans with people and we always start with the end goal and work our way backwards. For many people the first steps are as simple as buy a new pair of running shoes or spend one hour on Google researching countries you’d like to travel to or write out one test recipe you may wish to try or update just the header of your outdated website.
These small steps of action almost always inspire us to take another baby step.
The “Do Something” Principal:
Take action > Find inspiration (eventually you will!) > Experience motivation
And repeat.
This is where a coach’s role can have a tremendous impact on one’s life. If you are unsure of the next right action to take I would love to work with you. Click HERE to schedule a free 20-minute session to determine if we are a good fit for one another.