Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Some myths for the modern age:

• Sleep isn’t important. Working is more important.
• 80 hours a week or you’re not going to succeed.
• Read everything. Stay up on everything.
• Follow this person. They’ll help you figure it out.
• Do what that person does. It’ll get you the same results.
• Quit your job and just do it.
• Working for yourself is the only way.
• Everyone’s an entrepreneur.
• Email is dead.
• Everything worth doing has already been done.
• You can do this, if you have the right formula.
• This system will get you the results you want.

There are thousands more myths, aren’t there? You could add some. Or you could set about deciding what is going to matter. And then, you could do. Something.

I just signed up for a 5K trail run, the first time I’ve signed up for a race since the end of 2004. (Of course, moments after I signed up, I realized that I was actually not able to run that race, because I’ll be in Disney at the time it’s going on, but that’s not important.) Here’s what makes this cool: I’ve been sitting around NOT running for a while. I’ve dabbled at it.

But signing up is saying that I’m going to do it. It says, “You’d better go out and practice. You’d better get into even vague shape.” This is doing. It is pushing the button. It’s making something leave the theoretical and pushing it into the actual.

Once you start doing, things become a lot more real. You make mistakes. You learn. You practice. Once you start doing, you can interact with others who have done. You suddenly join a fraternity of those who’ve done something similar. Once you start doing, you can measure your own abilities, and you can try to improve against yourself (not necessarily against others).

Before you start doing, you’re just talking. You’re planning. Sure it’s great to have a plan. But if you do a LOT of planning and not a lot of doing, you’re not doing.

So, what are you going to do? What haven’t you done that you need a push to start doing? What’s step one?