“Let the river roll which way it will, cities will rise on its banks.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet (1803-1882)
Organization and planning play a big role in our quest for productivity. But when they cross the line and becoming the very act that prevents us from productivity? Do you have the wisdom to recognize when preparing to pursue your dreams prevents you from pursuing them?
When building a business, there’s a tendency to try and control the fear of the unknown by designing complex plans. We try to ensure success by predicting future pitfalls. We stack up our contingency plans, map out extensive to-do lists, then scrutinize our choices.
As we ponder our plans and “get ready to start,” initial conditions often change. When they change, we extend or modify plans to accommodate each new development. This is a very comfortable place to be. It creates the illusion of progress without any actual forward motion.
A massive to-do list with non-specific tasks is one symptom of over planning. When you look at your list, do you feel defeated? Does it seem like the first few steps of an ultra-marathon you’ve not trained to run? That’s a sure sign you’ve waded deep into productivity paralysis. But don’t worry; you won’t have to complete that to-do list. In fact, almost everything on it is probably irrelevant.
The paradox of the “grand plan” is that it falls apart almost immediately after we take action. Only in the reality of pursuing our plans can we transcend the theoretical. The early pioneers of flight learned some very valuable lessons when they took their best designs on paper off a windy cliff.
Action prompts reaction. How the market and our clients respond revises our view of things in radical ways, prompting obvious next actions and/or difficult new questions. The best we can do is set an ambitious goal, then ask: “What is the next actionable step towards that goal?”
Each act informs the next act and enlightens the acts which came before. The Spanish poet Antonio Machado once wrote:
“Traveler, there is no path. Paths are made by walking.”
Put down your heavy plans and start walking. Each step today will reveal your path.
