Action leads to learning, not thinking.
We often believe that the best way to figure out what to do next is to think about it. But that assumes we have all the information we need to make the best decision, which is almost never the case.
When I was leaving grad school, I told a friend my plan to take three months to figure out what I should do next. He told me I was an idiot, and that the only way to figure out what I want to do is to do things. I took his advice, and spent the first ten years of my career trying different jobs at different companies, which helped me learn how to position myself for success for the remainder of my career. I could have spent months thinking about what I wanted, and been totally wrong about what worked for me – I learned faster by doing, not thinking.
Most decisions in life are reversible. So it’s often quicker and more satisfying to just try the thing, and see if you like it, rather than agonize over whether something is the “right” choice for you. A couple other examples from my life:
— I moved to New York City for a job in 2006 after ten years building up a life in the Bay Area. I worried that the job wouldn’t work out and I’d be miserable there. Another friend reminded me that if that happened, I could always move back to the Bay Area and pick up my old life in a year. I took the leap, and learned so much about myself by starting over in New York; even though I did move back a couple years later, I came back a new version of myself.
— When I was debating whether to leave Google to focus on coaching five years ago, I wondered if I’d be able to make it work. But I had savings in the bank to cover my costs for a year, and I had a lot of goodwill from my decade at Google – I was reasonably confident that I could get another job in a year if I needed it. Rather than keep wondering, I took the leap, and five years later am still making it work.
You regret the things you don’t do, rather than the things you do. And you learn far more from trying something, even if you “fail”, than you do from thinking about it and having your mind go in circles.
This also applies in a professional context, of course. Tech companies know to A/B test new feature ideas rather than guess as to what works. Lean Startups embrace the Build Measure Learn loop. When you can apply that sort of learning mindset to your own decisions, then you’ll really start learning fast about yourself.
What’s an example from your life where you took the leap and learned something from action, not thinking?