No amount of thinking can stop thinking. – Mark Nepo

Clarity Comes From Engagement

One of my favorite thought leaders is Marie Forleo. She teaches that clarity comes from engagement. That makes sense to me. We get clarity when we get out of our heads and get things done. We get clarity when we do our homework and act. We get clarity when we prepare and execute. As we engage, our actions build skills and understanding and (potentially) we grow. The hot/cold test of life does not work if we stay in our heads.

Thought Spirals

I am super familiar thought spirals. Like a thought merry-go-round, a thought spiral is a seductive dance between conversations in our heads, tornadoes of angst, fear, and worry, and the fog that lowers in times of indecision. I have ruminated in thought spirals for long periods of time – particularly when I enjoy the comfortable paralysis of analysis. When spinning, my thoughts trend toward worst case scenarios and catastrophe. I take action to stop thought spirals. I create vision statements and gratitude lists. I read things that give me life hacks. I hang out with people who get things done. Sometimes those things works.

In Praise of Action

I want to say a few words in praise of action. By action, I don’t mean random, useless, futile, energy-draining action. I mean action born of thought and strategy, heading toward specific goals, reaching out beyond the thought merry-go-round. I am not saying thought is bad: rather, I am saying when we act, we learn. When we do, we can make mistakes, do again, and then make different/better mistakes. We can study, and that is important, but when we synthesize and apply and act, our challenges and problems are closer to being solved. At their best, thought merry-go-rounds are about reflection and introspection and depth. At their worst, thought merry-go-rounds discourage growth, improvement, and healing. We know when it is time to step off of the thought merry-go-round and get things done.