Do Something
A solution to tough decisions and challenging times.
Post summary
We’re covering a framework for making better decisions—especially in challenging times.
When we face tough times, we often think more planning and analysis is better. We tend to go into planning mode and overthink, searching for the perfect choice.
But there are five significant downsides of over-planning and overthinking.
A lesson from combat can help us get out of our heads, act—and win.
The lesson aligns with recent scientific discoveries about optimal decision-making.
It also helped launch Michael’s writing career.
Housekeeping
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Heads up: I’ll be going live on Tuesday, February 25th at 1pm EST with Ethan Suplee, the actor in films such as Remember the Titans and American History X, about his lessons from losing over 200 pounds and getting really, really fit. Ethan is wise on these topics, and I can’t wait to chat with him. Watch through the Substack App.
ICMYI:
On Wednesday, we covered the comfort crisis of physical activity. We looked at the wild numbers on how much less active we are today, and my top solution to the modern inactivity problem.
On Friday, we covered the best on-the-go protein foods.
Audio/postcast version
The post
Have you ever been in a burning building? I have.
About a decade ago, I was an editor at Men’s Health magazine. A handful of challenges all coalesced to present the impossible.
Our Editor-in-Chief left, and changes at the magazine led half of the staff to quit. This happened as our parent company pressured our magazine to carry the larger publishing company.
Creating this juggernaut of a magazine with our skeleton crew was like being asked to build an addition onto a house on fire.
A guy named Bill Stump was acting as our defacto leader.
One morning, I’d been ruminating on all the possible things I could do to get the magazine and myself out of the fire. I had a big list of options I was scrutinizing, weighing, and analyzing.
That afternoon, I ran into Bill in the hallway and asked him, “What are we going to do?”
I was hoping he’d lay out a grand strategy, giving me targeted instructions for exactly what I could do to get us out of the mess.
Bill looked at me calmly. "Something,” he said and shrugged. “Just do something."
That line has stuck with me since.
The power of “do something”
When chaos arose, my inclination was to enter planning mode.
I’d lay out many possible decisions and analyze each to determine which was optimal. I’d scrutinize. I’d anticipate every outcome. I’d worry which is best.
I’m not terminally unique. Humans are great future thinkers who tend to enter planning mode when we have a problem or question.
Researchers in Australia wrote that our memory makes humans unique because it “allows us not only to go back in time, but also to foresee, plan, and shape virtually any specific future event.”
Planning clearly has upsides. Early humans who planned more had a better chance of getting food, water, shelter, and keeping their kids alive—so there’s a good reason we evolved to plan so heavily.
Planning still helps us make better decisions, mitigate risks, and feel confident.
But there’s a balance. At some point, planning becomes counterproductive. We can hit five downsides:
It can lead to paralysis by analysis: Planning gives us the illusion of control. But the more time we spend analyzing options, the less time we spend actually doing something that makes progress. We hit a point of diminishing returns—the paradox of choice.
It can put us in a perfectionism trap: We believe we’ll find the perfect solution if we just think, think, think. This is an illusion. We’ll never find the perfect solution because we don’t have a crystal ball.
It can put blinders on us: Once we make a choice, intense planning can lead us to become overly married to our plan. As new information arrives and circumstances change, we often ignore better paths. Research shows that the most obsessive planners often fail to adapt to new circumstances, hurting long-term outcomes.
It can heighten stress and anxiety: Constantly worrying about future events and potential setbacks is stressful!
It can lead us to ignore the present: When we’re obsessively planning, we’re somewhere else. Thich Nhat Hahn, the Buddhist monk, explained, “To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future. The idea is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past or worries about the future.”
Do something: Lessons from combat
Bill’s line—do something—has oddly stayed with me all these years. I’ve since interpreted it as a reminder that the perfect choice is an illusion and to, yeah, do something.
But on Friday, I emailed Bill and asked him what he meant by the line. I wanted to hear how he interpreted it.
He didn’t remember our exchange but explained that he’d gotten the line and its lessons from combat sports.
Here’s what he wrote:
I took Aikido with a sensei named James Jackson. James was 6’4”, 225 pounds, and athletic as hell. He was also a philosophy professor at Muhlenberg College, a minister, and a big Matrix fan. In short, one of the most interesting people I’ve known.
I was a diligent student, memorizing katas with the bo and jo, always analyzing every move and countermove. One day while sparring, James came at me fast. I hesitated, trying to find the perfect response—and I got completely handled.
“Bill,” James said. “Do something! Don’t hesitate. Imagine your family is upstairs, and an intruder just broke in. You don’t have time to be perfect. When in doubt, act quickly and with energy. Trust you’ll figure it out.”
Bill then began applying that lesson from Aikido to work and personal life. He mentioned how his role at our publisher was to troubleshoot, launch new projects, and fix ones that were burning down.
(In these situations), I often got stuck trying to find the perfect solution.
Aikido taught me a better way: Train hard and know your stuff, but when faced with a challenge, don’t wait for perfection. If you’re unsure, move. Keep going. Trust you’ll figure it out. In short: Do Something! And that's what we did with Men’s Health during that time of transition.
Why it works
Psychologists at Princeton studied decision making and concluded that there’s no way to make a perfect choice in the real world.
But isn’t that nice to know? We have no idea what the perfect choice is—so just do something. Two pieces of advice:
Pick “good enough.” Studies suggest that people who plan just enough to reach a good outcome are happier than what researchers call “maximizers,” which are people who obsess over every detail. It makes sense—we call the latter neurotics.
As Bill wrote, “Train hard and know your stuff, but when faced with a challenge, don’t wait for perfection. If you’re unsure, move. Keep going. Trust you’ll figure it out.”
Be willing to adapt. Research at NYU found that people who were flexible and willing to pivot on a plan or choice reached better outcomes. This is also backed by a curious phenomenon that lives outside of academia called “common sense.”
I like the “do something” framework because it’s inherently loose and easy to pivot from.
After my exchange with Bill in the hallways, I went back to my office and did something: I pitched a feature story idea I’d been tinkering with for way too long.
Until then, I hadn’t done any feature writing. I wanted to break into writing long stories, but had spent weeks trying to get every word and paragraph of the pitch right.
The pitch I sent wasn’t perfect, but it took. It ended up being my first big, splashy feature in the magazine. It was a success—and it launched my writing career.
Have fun, don’t die, do something.
-Michael
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I feel like this is especially challenging in today’s society because there is so much information out there. It seems like no matter what you are looking to do, there are now an endless amount of coaches, courses, etc out there. It’s easy to get down a rabbit hole & spend way too much time (& sometimes money) “learning.” Then suddenly you realize…am I still researching here, or am I avoiding the action part out of fear, laziness, or some other emotion?
Reminds me of a few sayings: Perfect is the enemy of good; everybody has a plan until they are punched in the face; and, you are only as good as your training.