Time To Action = Zero (A Formula For Rapid Action)
The time between wanting to do a thing and doing a thing should be as close to zero as possible. Intend to succeed. Expect to fail. But take the action you want to take. So much of productivity is about deleting the time between thinking of a thing and actually doing that thing. This gap keeps so many people hostage. The vast majority of people never find a way through it. They are two busy finding ways to pretend like it doesn’t exist. The thing you must do needs to get done. Just do it.
If you’ve ever tried fasting or abstaining from sugar or coffee, you’re familiar with the cravings you get. Your body is telling you what it wants and you have to decide if you will go along with it or not. As a great mentor of mine once told me: your job is to set an intention, make a decision and stop negotiating with the body. If you imagine that thought as a mental contract, taking decisive action is the equivalent of you signing the contract and making it real.
Everything becomes real when you take action. Nothing happens without action. I’ve recently been working on a mantra that goes something like: Do it now. Do it well. Do it better. But first, do it now. So many of us are constantly looking for the next thing instead of doing the thing that is right in front of us. We know what we need to do. It’s a matter of removing all obstacles and distractions and getting that thing done.
Another mentor of mine used to say that the time between knowing what you should do, and actually doing it, is like a nightmare. I think that’s absolutely right. When you aren’t doing what you truly want to do, you are living a sort of anti-life. You are being lived by your body and mind instead of using them to live.
I recently have been working through Tony Robbins classic audio program Personal Power, it’s basically 30 days of 20-50 minute audios and a daily exercise for each. Tony Robbins is a huge inspiration and model for me, his work speaks for itself, but I cannot help but feel—as I listen to these tapes—that if we just remove all of the complexity it ultimately comes down to competency and execution.
If we do a thing well, and reap the rewards of doing it, we don’t need to reprogram ourselves using various techniques and methods. I find that all of these things are cover stories for the core truth: all you need to do is follow through on the thing you want to complete. That’s it.
I want to be very clear here: I am not advocating for a brute-force approach to life. Grinding. Working 80+ hours per week. Treating people like paychecks. That’s a recipe for absolute disaster.
I believe you can always get better at what you do, but that doing it is the key. There is nothing more exhilarating than doing something that you wanted to do. Crossing hard tasks of a list invigorates you and fills you with a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment. Hiding from things we want to do in favor of procrastination or distraction comes with a felt and unfelt cost. Over time, we gradually break so much trust with ourselves that we can find ourselves in a very dark place where taking action is harder than ever.
The cure? Take action. Do the thing. Speak to the person. Make the call. Write the email. Whatever it is, confront it head on with urgent, intelligent action. You will feel incredible.
Jock Willink, a former Navy SEAL has a philosophy he calls Default Aggressive—a posture that he takes towards life. It’s not about violence or anger, but about being on offense instead of defense. In his mind, it’s better to act on a situation and adjust, rather than being acted upon. Taking action always gives you the tactical advantage over your environment since you’re acting, not reacting.
I’ve created a sister concept that you might call Default Urgency. The idea that everything can be done as soon as possible. Of course there are certain things you can triage for later, but become the type of person who takes rapid, intelligent, high quality action when a task appears to be done.
This is what Time To Zero is all about. Reducing the gap between seeing something that can be done, and actually doing it. All of life is really one long struggle to do the thing you know you want to do. Notice that I’ve favored want instead of ought throughout this essay. That’s intentional. Once you generate results and momentum you will fall in love with this way of being. You will call it duty, but in your heart it’s love. You fall in love and you form a relationship with action by taking action.
Action is the cure you have been seeking.
—JM
