You Probably Already Know Enough, Now Use It

(Transcript edited for clarity.)

Hi, I'm Wes with Your Life Systems. Welcome to You Probably Already Know Enough, Now Use It.

That's the official title.

I like the secondary title better: Knowledge Creates Options, Action Creates Results.

Today we're going to talk all about jumping into action.

This is one of my favorite topics, one of my favorite things to talk about, and one of the things I find a lot of the people I work with really need.

They need to pull the trigger and take action.

They've planned, they've studied, they've got a goal in mind, and we've developed systems to help them reach it.

But there's something keeping them from taking the next step, and that's action.

Knowing something isn't the same as doing something.

Knowledge can create options.

Options are good, especially when you're working on a business problem or a life problem.

It's good to have several options.

Then you can evaluate each option and choose the one that appears to have the best chance of helping you achieve or succeed at whatever you want to do.

But you never learn whether that's actually the best option until you take action.

Sometimes you'll have four or five options, work through them, and decide option three looks like the best option.

You'll put it in place, and it doesn't work as well as you thought.

A lot of times we look at that as failure.

Sometimes it might be failure, but often it's a case where no matter what you knew and learned, you weren't going to know how good an option was until you took action.

Instead of looking at that as failure, look at it as information gathering.

You took action on option three because you thought it might be the best.

It didn't work out.

Don't view that as a failure.

You found out option three is probably not the best option or isn't going to work.

At that point, you have at least two options.

You can try to improve option three, or you can go back and look at the other options you didn't choose.

When you choose another option, now you have additional knowledge, information, and feedback to help you make a better choice.

So here's the challenge, or the key question, for you today.

I actually have a question and a challenge.

First, the question you need to answer today:

What do you already know that you need to start doing?

About three years ago, this really slapped me right upside the head because usually I don't have a problem taking action.

In fact, usually if I have a problem, it's that I take action too soon.

I take action before I've completely thought everything through.

I've hammered into myself through systems, frameworks, and businesses over the years that I need to take action quickly.

So usually I default toward taking action quickly.

Then I learn.

When I make mistakes, I learn.

I evaluate.

I adjust.

That's all good.

Usually my problem is not failing to take action.

But about three years ago, this really hit me in the face.

I'm diabetic, and I had a high A1C.

That was important to get under control.

You're talking about your health.

If you're not healthy, you can't do a lot of the other things you want to do in your life.

So I went to the doctor.

It was not good.

He started talking to me about different options and different things.

As we went through everything, it hit me:

I already know all of this.

He asked if I needed to go see a nutritionist.

I did not need to go see a nutritionist because I'd seen one before.

I already knew what I needed to do, but I wasn't doing what I needed to do to take care of the problem.

So I fit right into this trap.

You probably already know enough.

Now use it.

It's something I knew, but I was not taking action on.

There were different reasons why I wasn't taking action.

But at my age, you can't mess around with this stuff too long.

That was my wake-up call that day when I realized I already knew everything I needed to do.

Now, how was I going to make sure I did it?

That's when I started creating systems and frameworks around it to help force me to take the actions I needed to take.

This is not a lower-A1C episode.

I might do one of those someday because I've done it.

But quickly, these are the types of things I did.

I knew I needed to lower my sugar intake.

You take in fewer carbs, and it helps your A1C go down.

That's pretty much science and math combined.

If you don't put any sugar in, your A1C is likely to go down.

I also needed to exercise and lose some weight to give my body a better chance to do what it needed to do.

So I had to create systems and frameworks around the way I ate.

I've talked about that in a few other episodes.

Certain things I had to stop buying and stop having in the house.

If they were in the house, I was probably going to have a weak moment and eat them.

So I changed my diet plan.

I changed the way I shopped for food.

I changed what food I had in the house.

That was all part of a system or framework I put into place.

Same thing with exercise.

I started blocking out exercise time, how many times a week, and exactly what times I was going to do it.

I started tracking that.

That was another system or framework.

This is just an example.

I already knew all this stuff.

I needed the wake-up call to start taking action.

So today is your wake-up call.

Whatever it is that you know you need to do, this is your wake-up call.

You need to start taking action.

Here's the challenge I have for you today:

Choose one thing you know you should be doing.

It can be any part of your life or business.

Choose one thing you already know you should be doing that you're not doing anything about, and take action today.

That's my challenge to you.

I'm going to expand on this a little bit, then I'll come back and remind you of the challenge at the end.

Knowledge expands your options.

I said that.

But it does not create results by itself.

The more you know, the better.

Almost always, it's better to know more than to know less.

But knowing more doesn't create the results you want unless your goal is simply to get smarter.

Most of us want to get smarter, but we attach that to specific goals - health, life, financial, business, family, and so on.

Those goals don't get done if you don't take action on them.

It's good to know the stuff, but you need results.

The only way to get results is to put what you know into action.

Knowing what to do and consistently doing it are different skills.

When I told you about the systems and frameworks I used around my sugar intake, knowing what to do didn't help me.

Consistently putting what I knew into action is what started getting results.

Those are different skills.

Knowing what to do and consistently doing it are different skills.

I had the knowledge part down.

It was consistently doing it, consistently using the systems and frameworks, where I was struggling.

That was the skill I was lacking.

More information can feel productive, but it's actually delaying the results you want.

Again, this all comes back to action.

If you get nothing else out of this, take action on one thing today that you know you need to do and haven't been doing.

It doesn't have to be huge action.

It can be a very small step, but get into action.

Take a step today.

Action creates feedback.

Then you can evaluate what happens and learn the thing when you need it.

Learn what the next thing is when you need it.

You don't need to know everything to start.

You need to know everything you need to take the next step.

Then when you take the next step, you get feedback, learn from taking that step, and adjust.

It's a process.

This is a goal achievement process.

It starts with thinking, but actual progress toward the goal doesn't start until you take action.

So again, you probably already know enough.

Now use it.

Take action.

Knowledge creates options, but action creates results.

The question is: What do you already know that you need to start doing?

The challenge is to choose one thing today, right now, that you know enough about and need to do something about but aren't taking action on.

Then figure out the smallest step you can do right now, or complete before the end of the day, to bring you closer to the result you want.

Take action.

Do it.

That's it.

If that's all you get out of today's episode, then we're in a good place.

We're succeeding.

Figure out one thing.

Figure out the smallest thing you can do to get closer to that goal, and take action right now.

Take action today.

This is Wes with Your Life Systems.

Please like and subscribe.

Good luck.

I'll see you soon.

What's Next?

·        Write down one thing you already know you should be doing.

·        Stop gathering information about it for the moment.

·        Define the smallest useful step you can complete today.

·        Change the environment, schedule, or system if that makes the action easier to repeat.

·        Take the step and pay attention to the feedback it creates.

·        Use what you learn to decide the next step instead of trying to know everything in advance.

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