You Don't Need Anymore Advice. You Need Action.
That's The Only Key To Progress.
Don’t let your self-help books become shelf-help! - Jim Kwik
"This One Productivity Hack Will Triple Your Word Count!"
"These X Tips Will Help You Stress Less And Be Happier!"
"Try These Five Exercises To Have Toned Abs"
"This Is The One Diet That Will Help You Lose Those Pounds"
We come across such articles every single day.
Heck, even I add some of mine to this ever-growing pile.
Articles and books which provide advice of some sort can be great life-helpers. You could learn new ways of taking care of your health, mending that relationship with your partner, or boosting productivity.
This is one of the biggest plus-points of the Internet - access to help and advice.
But one thing we don't realise is how we get sucked up in the advice blackhole.
One article leads to another article.
One book leads to another book.
One video leads to another video.
And yes, one course leads to another course.
We get so busy going from one resource to another that we forget the real purpose of them all.
The reason why there are these articles, books, videos, courses - their ONLY real purpose for their existence - is to make you get your ass out from the chair and into the mud.
No matter how many of these self-help, personal development materials you ingest, they won't help you if you don't take those ideas and yourself to action.
That is how I wasted the first two years of my writing life.
As a newbie writer, I read hundreds of blog posts and articles on how to write a mystery novel. Reading those, I realised I need to read about character development, plot structure, theme, outline a novel, edit a novel, etc.
From one article to another, from one video to another, the more I read how-to articles about writing, the more I realised how much I sucked at it. How much I didn't know. I went so deep in the writing advice black hole that I couldn't find my way out. I didn't know where to start. That made me doubt myself; fear of failure came in hand-in-hand too. Before you know it, I didn't write anything because I knew what I'd write would be crap.
It wasn't until recently that I finally understood that the best way to learn something is by doing the work.
It's okay to look for advice.
It's a good idea to know where to start and how to go about it.
It's a good idea to learn how your idol did it.
It's a good idea to hire someone to help you.
But once you know what you need to do, GET TO WORK!
It is only through action that you can see those pieces of advice come to life. Only then will you know which of them work for you and which don't. As you do that, you'll learn and make changes, and slowly but surely, you'll make some progress.
As Jim Kwik said, don’t let your self-help books become decorative items for your shelf. Put them to use. You know what you need to do. Now get going.
