Nicolas Cole argues that you can't improve without taking action first. Overthinking and seeking shortcuts won't work because a stationary ship can't be steered. His example: wanting to get good at basketball but refusing to go to the gym and asking for secret techniques instead.
You can't steer a stationary ship, meaning there's no point in overthinking, oh, well, should I do this or this? So many people try to solve problems they don't have yet. They imagine what their life's going to be like 100 paces away when they haven't even taken the first step. So the whole big idea here is you literally can't improve something that isn't in motion. The metaphor I like using is imagine if you said, I really want to get good at basketball. I'm like, great, I'll see you at the gym tomorrow. You're like, no, no, no, no, no, I don't need to go to the gym. I just want you to tell me, how does Kobe do that turnaround jump shot? You're not even in the gym. You're not even showing up to the gym. Everyone loves loves jumping to what's the advanced thing, what's the secret thing, what's the growth hack, what's the shortcut. But you literally can't improve something that isn't in motion.
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