Are you one of those people?
You know, the ones with lots of cool ideas? The folks who fill up notebooks with thoughts or spend their time imagining the future?
You’ve probably met these kinds of people. They’re so busy jotting down notes that they don’t actually get things done. They’re always coming up with new stuff but never really making anything happen.
To fix this, there are only two things you need to do:
- Start. And then…
- Finish
You can’t do the second thing if you don’t do the first.
Let’s take Piyush as an example. He’s one of those people. He carries his ideas around like they’re special shields, protecting him from criticism and blame. “Hey, can’t you see I’ve got this big notebook full of ideas? You can’t blame me for not doing stuff, I’ve been too busy thinking up the next thing… If only those people on the Group W bench would listen to me, everything would be fine.”
But the problem isn’t really those people he’s talking about. It’s more about him being afraid to start. He’s always thinking and planning, which gives him a good excuse for not trying anything right now.
Fear on both sides
Some of us don’t start when we should. We hold back, saying we need more information, a better time, or a friendlier audience.
This happens a lot. It stops us from showing how great we can be. Let’s call it “hypogo“—being stuck and not starting.
Interestingly, the opposite can be true too.
Some people deal with fear by doing too much. They’re always dreaming up the next big thing, bigger than big. They might start one project on Monday and then switch to something completely different on Wednesday. If that doesn’t work out quickly, they’re on to something else by the end of the week.
Fitzgerald described this well when he talked about Jay Gatsby: “What’s the point of doing great things if I can have more fun telling people what I’m going to do?” It’s easy to love the idea of starting so much that you forget to actually start.
The person who keeps asking questions, taking endless notes, and always being in your face isn’t just annoying—they’re avoiding doing real stuff. They’re too focused on thinking and dreaming to be responsible for their work. They’re always busy with the next thing and don’t care about what happened before.
Being in the middle is best
It’s not good to be too fat or too thin. It’s not good to have really high or really low blood pressure. The best place to be is in the middle, where we’re connected to what people want and do things well.
For every person I know who’s always doing too much, I know almost a hundred who could do more if they just started. If you’re not making a difference, it’s probably because you’re scared. And that fear can show up on both ends of the scale.