Why Do We Wait For The Ducks To Line Up?

It’s true, humans in general (or should I say, inhabitants of 21st century westernised societies) have a tendency to over-plan, over-analyse and put off doing something until everything is in place. I often wonder if this is a throwback to the days of the Roman Empire, with it’s meticulously drilled legions, straight roads and urban planning.

The thing is, we see time and time again instances of people just “going for it” and being successful. It is all too easy to dismiss this as luck, but surely it happens so often that it’s more than that? Maybe these “lucky” instances point to a redundancy in most of the stuff we do in the name of “preparation”. Sure, if you’re going mountain climbing then there’s some preparation you will want to do, but what of the act of putting yourself at the base of the mountain in the first place?

I reckon everyone has a “bucket list” of some sort, and most people will wind up doing very little on that list. Why? Because most of us will plan to do all those things until time runs out. But forget about such grandiose ideas, like climbing Everest; there are countless things, big and small, that we constantly put off in our personal lives, business lives and social lives. We put things off in the name of “planning”, planning that we think we need to do because of booking time off work, having enough money in the bank, or lining some other ducks up to create a “zero risk” situation that allows something to be done.

Well, it seems that the world doesn’t work that way, and it’s no mistake that the achievers of the world are the risk takers; people who have a goal, a dream, a burning desire to do something, and just do it. Sometimes this “leap of faith” is taken accidentally, or is forced on someone by circumstances. You rarely (ever?) hear of someone achieving or doing something because they planned every last minute detail for 25 years, and then did it.

“Going for it” is a good way to live, now I just need to persuade myself to do that

http://garywilmot.net/2009/09/why-do-we-wait-for-the-ducks-to-line-up/