“Should I .. I’m not sure I even know how .. what will others think of me? Why should I do this? Will I even want to do this in a year .. or a week?”
We are too in our heads. I’ve often had this dialogue with myself about doing something or even while I’m doing it. Your mind is constantly trying to get you to not do what your heart wants.
I heard about this in a podcast. They were talking about the book, The Courage to Be Disliked, for those of you who haven’t read it (at the time of writing, that is myself included), it’s about a young man and an old philosopher having a dialogue about life. Their contrasting views unfold like this, one believes that life is difficult, while the other believes that life is simple.
The sage proselytizes; life is difficult because we make it difficult. Don’t bring past trauma and external circumstances into your present life. Take your present and do what you can with it.
This reminds me of the stoic quote, “you should only worry about things that are within your control”. If you can’t control it, there’s no use in worrying about it.
Don’t doubt yourself in the moment, if there is a time to doubt yourself, it’s afterwards. In the past, you thought about doing it, created a plan, now just stick to the plan. Your sober mind thought it was a good idea and created a plan around doing it, don’t let your doubtful mind take control and steer you into the ditch, where you’ll sit around and wait until your next idea motivates you to retake the wheel.
This isn’t an original idea. This is my original take on it. This idea is everywhere; think of Nike, “Just Do It”. Get out of your head and into the moment. Believe in yourself, believe in the past you that decided it would be a good idea to get up at 5am, run a marathon, write a book… Believe in yourself and execute.
If you want to get badass and metal about it, think of yourself as an executioner. The executioner didn’t decide who was executed, they didn’t think about if the decision was right or wrong, if the person was truly guilty, if they had a family and what they would think… They executed. They got orders from the King telling them what to do and they did it. Your past self is the King, where you have time to rationally think about the plan and how to complete it. Your present self is the executioner, whose sole job is to fulfill what the King ordered.
Be an executioner. Don’t think, just do.
Okay I think a disclaimer is necessary for this, there are certain things that you SHOULD think about before doing. Like for instance, should you invest your life savings in a pyramid scheme? Probably not. Think about it first. This was written for moments where you previously thought about and agreed with yourself it was a good idea, but in the moment, you begin to doubt yourself. It takes a lot of courage to do difficult tasks like getting up at 5am to work on your side hustle or training after work to run a marathon. When you’re in the moment thinking about whether you should really run 10 miles today, that’s when you should use this mentality, Don’t think, just do.
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From this brief synopsis of The Courage to Be Disliked, don’t think I understand everything about the book, I’m just a guy who heard other guys talking about it on a podcast, a bit embarrassing to say, but if this motivates me and others to read the book, I believe that does some good. I have it on my list of books to read this year and expect to read it by November.
Photo is from Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. This is a beautiful natural canyon on a reservation near Page. You must book a tour to visit inside, but it is well worth it for these stunning views.
If you do go, it can be tempting to try and take pictures/videos of everything, don\’t get sucked into looking at it through your phone, take pictures to help you remember what your eyes saw. You won\’t remember anything if you just look at it through a phone the entire time.