Action > Planning

Action > Planning
Photo by Jan Vasek

We are too good at planning ahead. Whether jotting down our future plans into a journal, or stocking up on notebooks for the coming years, planning is our thing, and we’re well-learned in the habit.

Reduce everything you want to do, to an action you can do right now.

But planning often doesn’t get us anywhere, at least in the beginning. I have a number of “plans” surrounding numerous different ideas and ventures, stored in both ink on the page and pixels on the screen that never got past the simple planning stage, despite their execution being meticulously planned out for months and years to come.

What do you want to do? From traveling the world to starting your first business, there are a thousand and one things you could plan around each of them right now; from making sure you look up the best backpack to take with you on a world trip, to deciding on a designer to piece together the logo for your new business.

But none of these things are what we should be asking ourselves right now. Before planning our lives away we need to take the first step in anything we want to do.

How will you fund yourself while traveling around the world? Is there a viable market for your business?

We all know that action is the only about-turn that ever gets us anywhere. Reduce everything you want to do to its first step, then take action on it. ∎

Benjamin Spall

Benjamin Spall

Benjamin Spall is the co-author of My Morning Routine (Portfolio). He has written for outlets including the New York Times, New York Observer, Quartz, Entrepreneur, Business Insider, CNBC, and more.