Preparation is as important as Action
“The four stages of the self-discipline process are:
- Decision to act
- Preparation
- Action
- Completion/Maintenance
“Most people wrongfully start the self-discipline process at the Action Stage, when in fact they are psychologically at the Decision [or] Preparation Stage.“
This is a quote from Self Discipline in 10 Days by Theodore Bryant. I think it ties in nicely with Getting Things Done by David Allen.
Goals worth achieving are intimidating. I find that I have often overcome this intimidation by Action. This is better than remaining paralyzed by fear, but often leads to mediocre results.
Preparation is important. Preparing too long is a sign of fear of Action. Not preparing at all is a sign of a lack of self-confidence, because you fear that if you prepare, you’ll never overcome the fear of Action or that if you truly prepared, you would have to admit personal failure, rather than blame your failure on an “external” factor, like not enough time to prepare.
Your point on self-confidence and not preparing is so so true. We often leave ourselves a little zone for failing comfortably — failures that we hope will be over-looked. Actually, we want people to congratulate us for failing – we want to be called noble for even thinking of trying. We want a trophy for breathing.