Well done is better than well said...

I’ve seen this quick little nugget of wisdom pop up in various places over the years and when I noticed it online somewhere this week, I found myself thinking again about the simple practicality of the message it’s trying to convey.

Don’t get me wrong: expressing our opinions, strategising around future plans and setting intentions for our personal development are all important tasks, things all of us should be engaged with, but it’s important to recognise that these are initial steps only, starting points in a process that will only yield us benefits if we can move forward and build on the outcomes.

The American journalist, Judith Martin once observed that ‘if written directions alone would suffice, libraries wouldn’t need to have the rest of the universities attached…’

The point that’s being made here is that information – and that includes whatever opinions, plans and goals you might be formulating – will be of little use if kept in isolation. It must be followed first by the activation stage, and then by practice.

A good analogy is this: many of us, myself included, are full of good intention when it comes to our personal health and fitness. Some of you will probably have used your months in furlough to bring those goals to fruition, but many others may still be at the intention stage. Activation occurs when you begin regular workouts, hire a personal trainer or buddy up with a friend for regular trips to the gym. When you’ve established a habit and a rhythm of regular, personal exercise and diet then you’ve entered the practice stage and you’ll soon start to see the results that you’ve been thinking and talking about.

Doing is better than saying – period. It seems simple, but in today’s online, information-rich environment, we can easily find ourselves idling at the initial stages of a project or goal, convinced that we’re already taking positive action for our own good.

Maybe you downloaded a meditation app and congratulated yourself that you were finally taking action to curb your workplace stress – then deleted it two months later when you realised that you weren’t using it.

Or perhaps you attended a training course that you really enjoyed, told everyone how much you’d learned and then failed to apply any of those lessons when you were back in your job.

Intention is the first, vital step to realisation of your goal, but it isn’t worth much if you can’t develop your plans through activation and practice. Be honest with yourself around the stories that you’re telling and if you feel that you’re stuck in a prevarication loop, then set the time aside and take the action that’s needed to realise your goals. Be the person that does, not the person that says they’ll do…