How to Stop Thinking, Start Doing and Get More Success

Today’s Blog post is a guest post written by my friend Wole Ososami – Wole is a pharmacist by training and an entrepreneur.  He’s also an avid blogger and blogs at his site www.woleososami.com.  He shares with us insights on how to take action to achieve success.  Enjoy.

There are times when I sit down to write and I am short of words. So I sit still and do nothing and then my mind begins to wonder. It’s not that I am short of words, it’s that I think I am short of words. What’s the difference?

If you stop thinking and start writing, suddenly words begin to flow.

Where did these words come from? They have always been there. It’s just that you blocked or obstructed the flow with your thinking.

[Tweet “Success comes not from thinking but from doing.”]

So what other areas of your life have you placed barriers simply because of your thinking? Let me help you with some.

1. You think your business cannot break into new markets so you don’t even make the effort.
2. You think if you start this new business, you will not get any customers so you remain in the job you hate.
3. You think you may not be able to pay back the money you want to raise for the next expansion so you put your expansion plans on hold
4. You think if you start this podcast, you may not be able to sustain it so you don’t start.
5. You think if you advertise your webinar no one would attend so you don’t do it.

The list is endless. But you know for certain that if you could get to the other side of your thinking and implement your plan, you are bound to impact lives and grow as a person.

Let me help you out here.

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t–you’re right

– Henry Ford”

For many years, I thought I couldn’t speak in front of an audience of more than two people. So I passed on every opportunity to stand up and speak or present. Yet deep inside me as I listened to motivational speakers, I knew I had something from my personal experience that could help people who were stuck in a job but felt that they could do more and be more.

So I remained an aspiring speaker until I said yes, without thinking to an opportunity to introduce a keynote speaker. As the day drew near, my anxiety and fear about things that could go wrong increased. I tried to back out but there was no way out of this one.

To my surprise and delight, my role in the event went well. None of the worst-case scenarios that I had played out in my mind happened.

So how does this apply to you in your business, your career and your relationships?

Your growth is in the new

The new skills you learn will bring growth to your life. The new customers you develop will bring increase into your business and the new relationships you make brings with it opportunities to open new doors for business growth.

But your thinking has put a massive barrier between you and your best you. What can you do to overcome these barriers that are holding you back?

#1. Off with your head 

Many self-help books will tell you to use your imagination to visualise your success. And many have done that but are still rooted to the same spot.

My encouragement to you is that it does not matter what thoughts are going on in your head, don’t let that stop you from doing what you have set out to do. Get on and do it or as the popular slogan goes, just do it.

#2. Do the work

Steven Presfield in his book “Do the Work” gave a few tips, which has always helped me overcome my thought barriers. So let me share three of these with you.

 Start before you are ready

There is the tendency to over plan and tell yourself that you are waiting for the right moment. The right moment is now. There must be something you can do now that will take you a step closer to achieving your goal. Find out what that step is and do it.

Suspend self-judgement

Your role is not to determine how good your work is. That is the customer’s role. Many books, blogs and businesses have remained on the drawing board simply because the author thinks it’s not good enough. Finish what you have started. Your end users or clients will give you the feedback you need and you can make the necessary adjustments the next time around. So don’t hold back from completing.

Pull the trigger and ship

This is a great piece of advice for all the starters out there. Do you have a lot of unfinished projects in your to do list? Go back, pick them up and finish them one at a time. There is a great joy that you feel in your heart when you complete a project. Suspend any self-judgement and simply finish what you have started. Anything in between is procrastination. Publish the book, start the business and call the new client.

#3. Implement your ideas and make a difference

Research has shown that you are more likely to complete something once you have started on it. Once you get started, you only need to persevere and persist until you reach the conclusion.

You may have heard it said that ideas rule the world. Ideas do not rule the world. Ideas are a dime a dozen, but people who implement ideas are worth more than their weight in gold.

Don’t just be an idea person, be the person who gets over the thinking hurdle and implements his or her idea.

You are bigger than you think.

Guest blog by: Wole Ososami

www.woleososami.com