One of my biggest fears is becoming paralysed; the thought of my body not obeying the commands of my brain and the feeling of being trapped in, what used to be, one’s tool of expression in this world. I suspect I share this fear with a great bunch of people, yet myself and a lot of other people tend to paralyse ourselves willingly. Of course not in a physical way, although that can be the outcome, but in a mental way.
I am of course talking about paralysis by analysis. This is the curse of the intelligent. Able people who, with the best of intentions, seek to find the perfect solution. In a fitness setting this would be people who spend years looking for that perfect programme. Here’s what my friend Sean Croxton would call a truth bomb: No such thing exists!
There is no perfect programme and if there were there is no way of finding it by analysing all day and all night. The only way to see results and to progress is by actually just doing it. Finding one programme and following it. It’s that simple. Note though that simplicity doesn’t mean it’s easy.
To further relate this paralysis by analysis to a current issue we can use my new year’s resolution as an example. I want to improve my reading speed and I’ve set a very simple plan: Read every day for the first five months, then follow a speed reading course. I’m sure that if I spent a long time analysing it I could find a slightly more optimal plan. But at the end of the day I’m making more progress than the person with the perfect plan because I’m actually doing it, I’m taking action.
So please remember to step back once in a while and consider whether or not you’re paralysed by analysis, and if you are take some freaking action! The timing is never going to be perfect, there’s always going to be a slightly better way but when faced with doing nothing and doing something – doing something will always bring more results.
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Thank you for reading. Yours truly, Christian Rosenvold
Less than 8% of the people who every year, fuelled by the excitement of a new calendar and the bubbles of a cheap champagne, make a commitment to themselves to change something are successful in their endeavour. In fact it doesn’t take long for them to give up either: 25% will have bitten the dust after the first week of January, and 54% of people will equally have failed after six months.
