NormsMilfordBlog

Wishful thinking may be a pleasant way to kill time, but that’s all it is. Wishing and dreaming actually accomplish nothing. It is in the doing that we get things done and achieve our goals.

There is a big difference between wishing/dreaming and planning. Planning is actually a very important precursor to doing. The planning stage is the time when we take advantage of all of the knowledge that we have accumulated in life to chart out a path to success. We mark the pitfalls that life lessons have taught us, so that we might avoid them this time. We get things organized and break down the big task at hand into smaller, achievable steps and then we prioritize those steps. I often call this the “Fixin’ to” stage, as in “I’m fixin’ to get to that home repair.”

Sometimes this is also the phase in which I become honest with myself and admit that the job is not one that I should even being attempting – it’s time to hire someone to do it. Those times have come more often and I get older and less physically capable.

However, for those jobs that I know that I can still do the next challenge is to exit the “fixin’ to “ stage and actually get started on the doing. That can be hard sometimes, because the “fixin’ to” stage feels a lot more comfortable that actually executing those plans. People seldom break a sweat during the “fixin’ to” stage, unless it is a cold sweat brought about by fear – fear about some part of the task or the fear of failure.

So, just as wishing is not enough to get anything done, so is getting stuck in a never-ending planning stage (the “fixin’ to” stage). I’ll bet that you know someone like that who is always planning to do something but never actually does it. Maybe that someone is you.

Wishing, dreaming and planning are not enough – you must do. So stop “fixin’ to” and start doing. Get it done.