The internet makes learning cheap and easy, so people stay stuck in phase one while execution gets harder. Fear and self-doubt keep you retreating to more courses instead of doing the work. Treat action like a muscle: start small, make a plan, and practice it.
Chapters
The gap between knowledge and action is widening. Social media and the Internet has made the acquisition of knowledge, or phase one, easier than ever before. It's practically free and you can do it from your bed. But it only gives you the theory of what to do. Phase two, the ability to execute, take action, perform and deal with the emotions that ensue, like self doubt, fear of failure and self discipline remains drastically underdeveloped. These phase two skills are far more important as it's where your real value, competence and confidence is built. Yet because it's so hard and uncomfortable, we turn back to phase one, where it's easy and safe. Passively learning, where we feel like we're doing useful work, but we're avoiding the area that needs the most attention. As we continue to avoid and distract from action, our abilities deteriorate. And over the years, this gap will only widen, making it harder to escape and more tempting to remain in phase one research mode. So here's what to do. Start closing the gap by committing to working in phase two. Treat it like a muscle that needs to be trained. Build an action plan, be strategic, start small to limit overwhelm and take action wherever possible.
