Shownotes
If you love the planning phase but struggle to get started, you could be caught in the motion trap. Preparing for action is valuable, but can also mislead you into thinking you are taking action when you are actually just in motion. Today’s episode explains the difference between motion and action, why planning can feel so satisfying, and why it may be your way of playing it safe.
Plus I'm sharing an update on my current momentum experiment (that's still not going great...)
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Transcripts
Imagine that you're going on a long weekend road trip. You've got
Speaker:your bags packed, you've got the car fueled up, you've got snacks.
Speaker:Maybe you've downloaded some podcasts or got an audiobook. Everything
Speaker:is ready to go, and you are feeling pretty good because
Speaker:you've been really productive getting ready. All of this planning is going to make your
Speaker:trip run really smoothly and ultimately be a
Speaker:success. But also, you haven't left home yet,
Speaker:you haven't actually started your trip, even though it feels like you've done so
Speaker:much already. And that's what we're talking about today. How
Speaker:to tell the difference between being in motion and
Speaker:taking action. And in this sort of trip
Speaker:example, there's usually a set date where you'll walk out of the
Speaker:door, you'll leave the driveway, and you'll go on your trip. But for
Speaker:so many areas of our lives, and
Speaker:particularly this is a struggle of mine, it's easy to get stuck in
Speaker:motion and delay taking real action, the type of action
Speaker:that moves you forward and closer to your goal. And
Speaker:let's talk about what's happening there. So how can you spend more time
Speaker:taking action on the things that matter and not
Speaker:necessarily staying in motion? And the concept,
Speaker:I think that a really great way that this is described is in the book
Speaker:Atomic Habits by James Clear. Maybe that's something you are
Speaker:familiar with, and if you're not, then I highly encourage it.
Speaker:But this idea is that there's motion and then
Speaker:there's action. So motion, both are important.
Speaker:Motion could be getting ready, preparing, coming up with ideas,
Speaker:maybe listing things down. But action is when you move things
Speaker:forward. And so an example might be that
Speaker:you are planning a project and you get all of the
Speaker:tasks in place, you get the timelines in place, but you haven't actually started
Speaker:executing the project. If we think about an example with,
Speaker:say, a podcast, you could be coming up with all of the ideas,
Speaker:the, you know, different ideas for your episodes, what you're
Speaker:going to talk about, the format, where you're going to post it, doing research on
Speaker:all of that. But until you actually publish an episode,
Speaker:you haven't necessarily started the podcast. Same
Speaker:with if you wanted to get stronger and you decide to
Speaker:choose a workout plan, maybe sign up for a gym nearby, get,
Speaker:get your gear, but until you actually lift a weight, you've just been in
Speaker:motion. It's action are the steps that actually move you forward and
Speaker:help you leave the driveway, so to speak. And when,
Speaker:when I like to think about a journey where you are starting
Speaker:any journey at point A, and ultimately you have a
Speaker:destination, maybe point B. All of the prep,
Speaker:which has its place. Prep can make sure that we start out on the
Speaker:right track, make sure we know where we're going, what we're doing.
Speaker:If you walk into a gym and you just wander around aimlessly,
Speaker:just kind of saying, I guess I'll try this machine, that's not helpful. So we
Speaker:know that prep matters, but all of the prep is sort of taking place at
Speaker:point A, and we're still staying here. We haven't actually left.
Speaker:So the difference is that once you actually step out the door
Speaker:and you start moving in the direction, whether that is lifting a
Speaker:weight, publishing a podcast, executing the project,
Speaker:all of that planning is where we are in motion. And the
Speaker:reason that I think this is really important to understand
Speaker:is that staying in motion can be a little bit of a safety
Speaker:mechanism. And there are actually two things that I want to
Speaker:talk about, which is that motion can be misleading.
Speaker:It can kind of lead us astray a little bit. And we're going to talk
Speaker:about that. And the second thing is that it really can feel safe
Speaker:and act as a security blanket, and it might be a reason that we
Speaker:put off or delay or procrastinate on things that matter.
Speaker:So first, let's think about this idea of motion being misleading.
Speaker:And when I say that, I mean that when we are planning, when we
Speaker:are prepping, when we're doing all of that work, we're engaged, our brain
Speaker:is engaged. We are thinking about the future. We are
Speaker:making a roadmap. Maybe we're solving problems. Okay, how is this going
Speaker:to work? What's this going to look like? Also, we might be
Speaker:visualizing the best possible outcome and what we can do to plan for that.
Speaker:And you can be really excited about what success will look like, what this
Speaker:will mean to you, all while having not left the driveway.
Speaker:Now, the example with, say, a podcast is if
Speaker:I am coming up with this idea, which I was for a while before
Speaker:I launched the momentum experiment, is that I kept thinking all the
Speaker:possibilities that I could do, what this could look like, what this could
Speaker:possibly mean for me and the work that I do. And it was so,
Speaker:so exciting. But until I actually published the trailer and
Speaker:put it out there, it was all just kind of staying put. I hadn't actually
Speaker:started moving it forward and creating a podcast.
Speaker:Now, the second one, the example I used around, maybe going into a
Speaker:gym, you can start thinking about the possibility, what it's going to
Speaker:mean, how you're going to feel and all of that, but until you actually
Speaker:get in there and start doing it, that's where you run into trouble. And in
Speaker:particular, I know for me, my brain really, really
Speaker:responds to things that are new, challenging, and just
Speaker:interesting. So when there's something that truly lights me up, a new
Speaker:project, a new pursuit, a new hobby or something, I
Speaker:love that planning stage. I love prepping for it.
Speaker:It's highly motivating for me, all of these. My brain is
Speaker:lighting up and it feels like I've accomplished so much, so
Speaker:much. I even show friends my plans. I'll say, look at all the
Speaker:planning I've done. This is what I'm going to do. And I talk as if
Speaker:I've already started it when I haven't left at all. And
Speaker:so there's this feeling, this sense of satisfaction, as if I'm
Speaker:halfway there, but I actually haven't even taken the first real step, the
Speaker:step that is going to start building slowly on it.
Speaker:And that's going to lead me kind of, I think, to this next point, which
Speaker:is really understanding that motion can feel really safe.
Speaker:And especially if we start to have this idea that
Speaker:preparation leads to success. And so we can start to feel
Speaker:like the more time we get ready is going to be the
Speaker:greater success that we'll have once we actually start. But there
Speaker:gets to this point where it's diminishing returns, where it
Speaker:turns into unnecessary delays and ultimately some
Speaker:procrastination. As much as we want or
Speaker:love this idea of a perfect start, that's not
Speaker:actually how this works. We know that you need to start taking action so that
Speaker:you can actually refine things and get better. I can't get better at
Speaker:a podcast until I get some feedback on how it actually goes.
Speaker:If you're at a gym, you can't start adjusting how things work until you
Speaker:actually try it for yourself. So we know that you can never be
Speaker:perfectly ready or have the perfect start. But
Speaker:this feeling of security, it means that by
Speaker:staying in motion and not actually leaving the
Speaker:driveway yet, you can't fail. So if you
Speaker:haven't started, you can't mess up, you can't get hurt, you
Speaker:can't embarrass yourself, you can't find out that you've actually made the wrong decision,
Speaker:and maybe you should have chosen differently. So instead you focus on how
Speaker:productive you feel, getting ready, staying in motion,
Speaker:telling yourself that you're taking really valuable action. Even though you haven't
Speaker:taken that first step on your journey, you're not actually getting closer to
Speaker:your destination. And I think it's really helpful for us to understand
Speaker:this idea of knowing the difference between
Speaker:the two. And I do believe that in this case, context
Speaker:matters. I think it's really simple. If we use the gym example,
Speaker:you're either doing exercises or you're not. So anything that's not
Speaker:exercising is motion. And once you're actually exercising,
Speaker:that is being in action. You could get pedantic and you
Speaker:could say, okay, but you need to rest. And that's an important part. Yes, that's
Speaker:true. But in order to get stronger, we actually need to have some resistance on
Speaker:our muscles. But there are some where it's a little more complicated.
Speaker:Even the podcast one, it's really multi step. So if I
Speaker:am starting a podcast, I still need to do some things like
Speaker:landing on the title, setting up my feed, making some art,
Speaker:et cetera. Like all of that stuff has to happen too. So
Speaker:there is something productive about getting ready. And maybe it's
Speaker:two parts. And the other example I would use that's a little bit more multi
Speaker:step is let's say you want to publish a book. There are people who will
Speaker:say that the outline, the planning, the ideation, that's motion,
Speaker:and sitting down and writing the words on the page, that's action. But
Speaker:there are others who say, well, it's not action until you actually publish your
Speaker:manuscript. So I would argue that there are certain cases where there are multiple
Speaker:steps along the path and we just need to start to understand
Speaker:the difference. So what are some questions that you can ask yourself
Speaker:to notice whether you are sort of stuck in this motion
Speaker:trap that feels very safe and feels productive and satisfying
Speaker:versus actually moving the needle. And I would say one is,
Speaker:have I started the actual journey yet? If you're in the
Speaker:planning phases, but you haven't started executing, or if you've got a big list of
Speaker:the things you need to do and you haven't started checking any off, that's a
Speaker:really good sign that you haven't started the journey yet. Also, this
Speaker:idea of are my actions moving me forward and closer
Speaker:to the end result? I actually want to use a completely fresh
Speaker:example, which is that as someone who runs training
Speaker:and runs workshops, let's say that I'm putting together a new
Speaker:corporate workshop proposal. I need to put
Speaker:that together. I need to actually create a proposal. I don't want to just go
Speaker:and reach out to someone and have nothing prepared. So that preparation
Speaker:is an important part of that. Maybe I am putting together
Speaker:a pitch deck that I want to then do some outreach,
Speaker:putting together that pitch deck. It's an important part. But until I
Speaker:actually send it to someone, I haven't really left the
Speaker:driveway. I'm still at home, and I haven't moved it forward
Speaker:because I have not reached out for someone to be able to actually
Speaker:respond to it. And I think that's the part where it gets a little
Speaker:scary. And I think that when you are hesitating,
Speaker:this is a sign that you are experiencing
Speaker:a psychological roadblock where if you keep preparing and you
Speaker:start to notice, okay, I'm hesitating to take action. I'm hesitating to start
Speaker:my journey. I could probably start right now, but I'm not. This is where
Speaker:I want you to get curious and start to ask, where is this fear coming
Speaker:from? Why am I scared of taking action? So if
Speaker:we take a look at this proposal example, I might be
Speaker:afraid of rejection. I might be afraid someone just says no, and I might take
Speaker:it as a personal hit against me that maybe it means
Speaker:that I'm not valuable instead of the actual workshop is not a good
Speaker:fit for them. If I don't ask, I can't get rejected.
Speaker:And if you have, say, that fear of being rejected, then it makes sense
Speaker:that we might just keep on spending time planning and not
Speaker:actually moving the needle forward. But that's where you start to ask, where
Speaker:is this fear coming from? Why am I hesitating? What is
Speaker:it that is in my head saying, it's not safe to go there,
Speaker:and what do I think will go wrong? And it usually comes from somewhere.
Speaker:These are not things that our brain just kind of makes up on its own.
Speaker:Maybe we have experienced being rejected before, or we know others that
Speaker:have, or we're just not 100% sure of what we're
Speaker:doing yet. And. And so we just worry about it. But often this means that
Speaker:we are ignoring evidence that might contradict the
Speaker:belief. So if I'm hesitating to reach out to people
Speaker:because I have pitched an idea and it didn't get accepted,
Speaker:I might tell myself, okay, but I've been rejected. I don't like that feeling. I'm
Speaker:worried about this happening. But what about the times that it was accepted or someone
Speaker:said, yes, I like that idea, let's work together. Sometimes we can forget
Speaker:about the contradictory evidence that sort of goes against this
Speaker:belief that something bad will happen. The other thing is that
Speaker:what is the first step that I can take that feels a little bit
Speaker:safer? So in my workshop example, if I
Speaker:wanted to send it to someone who knows Me, well, maybe someone I worked with
Speaker:in the past on something different, send it to them where at least I know
Speaker:that if they say no, they'll say it kindly and that
Speaker:this is an experience where it's not just that stakes aren't as
Speaker:high as other cases. So what does that first step look
Speaker:like? So instead of just focusing on the bigger picture or the end goal
Speaker:that getting all the way to B from A, you could say, okay,
Speaker:what's the first step on my journey? And what's a way that I can do
Speaker:it that's safe? And also notice what happens. So I think the next time
Speaker:that you are feeling like you are caught up in this motion and
Speaker:you're not really going anywhere, you're not taking those initial. That initial action,
Speaker:be kind to yourself, be curious about why you might be
Speaker:hesitating, and then just focus on a first step that
Speaker:doesn't have as high of stakes. Something that feels like you're just kind of
Speaker:gently wading into it. You're just getting maybe to the end of the driveway
Speaker:or stepping out on the street. You're not necessarily launching into something that does
Speaker:not feel safe. That is the thing that I try whenever
Speaker:I notice that I am needlessly putting it off, that I'm delaying, and
Speaker:that really I'm letting fear drive me instead of stepping
Speaker:into the actual journey. Which brings me to a small
Speaker:update on momentum experiments, which the current one that I had been
Speaker:sharing about over the past number of weeks is around for myself,
Speaker:coming up with a consistent strength program. And I have shared
Speaker:that I also have hypermobility, which
Speaker:leads to a lot of injuries. And. And I have been working with a
Speaker:physical therapist on a current injury that I have. But I do
Speaker:also have a specialist appointment. It's taken. It's been sort of months
Speaker:in the works to figure out what level of
Speaker:hypermobility restrictions that I have and whether I may in fact
Speaker:have what's called Ehlers Danlos syndrome or whether
Speaker:it's something else. And that is happening actually
Speaker:next week. So I want to take a little bit of a.
Speaker:Not a pause, but slow down my. My
Speaker:ambitions. And so I am focusing on working with
Speaker:my specialist, but also continuing to work with my physical therapist,
Speaker:so healing my current injury, working with medical
Speaker:professionals to move forward at a pace that meets where I am right now.
Speaker:I'm sharing this because, honestly, it's really frustrating. I
Speaker:have been wanting to be consistent with this for a long time,
Speaker:and I just feel like it's an endless bumping up against
Speaker:these just Roadblocks over and over and over again.
Speaker:And it's not for the sake of not wanting to, but it is one of
Speaker:those things that is my current reality. So I'm trying to keep it in
Speaker:perspective. And actually sharing that publicly is
Speaker:a way to remind myself that you're not always going to
Speaker:be able to see things through perfectly. No matter how much
Speaker:planning, we can't always predict what is going to happen.
Speaker:So. So how do you reset your expectations? And in this case,
Speaker:making sure that I'm working with people who know. Know a lot more than
Speaker:I do on this and also getting their perspective on
Speaker:what could work or what will work for me in my
Speaker:own context. It's not ideal. I think when
Speaker:I first pictured sharing about this momentum experiment and
Speaker:finding something that worked and having a method that I thought was going
Speaker:to be effective and sharing it publicly is actually one
Speaker:of the modes that I like to use. Having that public accountability of say I'm
Speaker:going to do something, that usually helps me to follow through on it. So coming
Speaker:back here and saying that this is really not
Speaker:working very well, that's hard for me. But I also think it's an
Speaker:important message that not everything's going to be perfect or flawless. And even if you
Speaker:have public accountability, it doesn't mean that you won't still have some setbacks.
Speaker:So that's. That's the update on there. I'm not giving up on this. I
Speaker:might. I might eventually pause on giving updates on this
Speaker:while I focus on something else while I tend to my injury.
Speaker:But I. Because I said I would share about it, I want to make sure
Speaker:that I'm coming back and cycling around. So maybe this is
Speaker:something that I kind of set on the back burner. That is something I
Speaker:had learned. This idea of how we prioritize things. We can kind of think of
Speaker:things on the front burner or the back burner. And it doesn't mean that I
Speaker:am taking it completely off the stovetop, but it is something where it goes to
Speaker:the back, keep it warm, while maybe I focus on something else that's a little
Speaker:bit suited towards where I am right now. And
Speaker:so perhaps in the next episode, I'll give you an update on a different
Speaker:momentum experiment of mine. But I want to
Speaker:hopefully give this context and when it comes to
Speaker:the motion and action, maybe you can reflect on
Speaker:areas in your life where you've been caught in that trap, where it
Speaker:feels safe, you feel like you're being productive, you feel like you are doing a
Speaker:lot. And there is a place. Planning is important, but planning is not the
Speaker:only thing. And actually stepping out and starting your journey
Speaker:is one of the things that is going to help you to find and keep
Speaker:your momentum.
