The Things We Already Know
Somewhere many moons past, I came across a quote that piqued my interest: "The secret to greatness is to be the person you pretend to be."
We spend hundreds of dollars and hours on personal development programs in an attempt to learn how to better ourselves, or achieve our goals. It is wonderful no? The act of self-betterment is a staple to happiness and essential in the larger context to the advancement of our society. Books and articles can guide us, however, the truth is that most of us already know exactly how to achieve the things we want in our life. The problem is hardly ever the know-how of how to get where we want to be. It is usually in the vast gap between what we know we should be doing and what we actually do. For example, do you want to lose weight and be healthy? Why not? Most of us do. Think about that honestly now, without kidding yourself. You already know how to do that, don't you? If you really did what you already know you need to do, you could probably accomplish your fitness goal within a few months. Similarly, do you want to get promoted at work? You already know what that takes too right? Want to learn piano? Want to become a better tennis player?... You get the idea.So, while I'm not preaching entirely against reading books and articles, as they can provide inspiration and new ideas, I would suggest that in achieving your dreams, spend twice the time on action and half the time on research. Too many times we get lost in research and subconsciously delay what we know is necessary. The pretense of planning, after a certain point, just becomes laziness to act. But you already knew that right?