How Come You Know Everything But Do Nothing
If you let knowledge in your head, put it into action.
The more I look, the more I see: knowing and doing often live in two parallel universes.
Many smart, educated, and continuously self-developing people don’t seem to change their lives in the slightest bit.
Many “not-so-smarts” (at the first glance), on the opposite, happen to have their life together and constantly improving.
The trick is hiding in the following disproportion:
While the first ones consume 100% of information and act on 1% of it, the second ones consume 10% of information and act on 100% of it.
The first ones live in their heads. The second ones live in… well, life.
The first ones are stuck on passively gathering the information, addictively consuming knowledge that gives them a false sense of progress.
It feels like the first ones are always at the start line. They’re standing there, having learned everything they possibly could about running, hydrating, and recovering, perfectly equipped for this big marathon called “life”. And yet, something holds them from crossing the “start” line and joining the game.
This “something” is called fear. Fear of failure and useless effort. Fear of doing something imperfectly.
Yes, perfectionism has this paralyzing effect on us.
But where does this fear of making a mistake or doing something less than perfectly stem from?
I believe, the problem is our extreme result-orientedness.
It is focusing on the potential outcomes before we even had the courage to make our first move.
Holding onto this mindset diminishes the importance of small changes. After all, how can these small changes live up to the unattainable standard we created in our heads?
It inevitably leads us away from enjoying the only thing that will get us where we want to be — the process. Under the influence of this mindset, the process, the doing becomes unbearable. Instead of giving us a sense of purpose and fulfillment, the process becomes the source of stress and guilt.
To secure ourselves from the potential friction and stress caused by our imperfect actions, we become passive.
We skip the “doing” part, because “doing” means dealing with the reality that is unfair, imperfect, difficult. The process often makes us feel weak and incapable, especially compared to the inflated expectations we put upon ourselves.
We hate this reality. We don’t want it.
What we want is to self-preserve in our own little bubble. The bubble where everything operates by our rules. We are not slugs, though; we still crave progress. And the safest and easiest way to experience this sense of progress is to create an illusion of progress through passively consuming knowledge.
Listen to more podcasts. Read more books. Subscribe to all the experts in the world. This all spiced with the underlying feeling that the grand life-changing answer to our real-life progress is right there, just around the corner. Ironically, the lack of real-life improvements fools us into thinking more knowledge is what we need to finally turn the tables.
More planning. More information. More doing without doing, please.
The great illusion of progress and development our minds play with us. The sense of twisted intellectual superiority mixed with utter misery from our passivity.
In this headspace, it can be especially hard to realize that what you really need is not information, planning, or thinking.
What you really need is a process-focused mindset.
Forgetting about the result and concentrating on the journey cuts this knot. Taking a moment to look around to notice where you actually stand in life, what and who you’re surrounded with, what you do every day, and, most importantly, what you want and need to be doing.
And we need to embrace it as it is, with its imperfection and boringly gradual progress.
It takes courage.
This is why so-called “street-smart” people often tend to be so accomplished — they are grounded and courageous. Their minds may fear, but their hands are acting.
They are in present, accepting their life and directly improving it here and now, in a way and pace they can. Monotonously and persistently, using uncanny, common-knowledge methods you might’ve rejected, they microshift their way to a better life.
And so should you.
A few tips that will help you abandon the ranks of “knowers” and join the “doers”
- Dose how much information you consume. Left uncontrolled, it becomes an addiction that fools you into thinking you’re progressing when you’re not.
- Get down to the tactical level and start applying at least 1% of the things you know. Start from the basics: set the regime, eat better, exercise. If you plan something, act on it right away — it is very important.
- Accept and embrace your life. Don’t hide your head in the clouds (or in gigabytes of content) when something goes wrong or the progress is slower than you want it to be. It’s okay. You’re okay.
- Let go of the result. Just start doing. Get outside your head and start interacting with the world.
You will be surprised how quickly it will respond back.
📝 Read this story later in Journal.
🌎 Wake up every Sunday morning to the week’s most noteworthy stories in Society waiting in your inbox. Read the Noteworthy in Society newsletter.
