Just Get It Done

There comes a time in the midst of busy lives and businesses when you just have to knuckle down and plow through some of the projects on your plate.

Perhaps it would be better if someone else did it.

Perhaps there is a smarter way to get it done.

Perhaps your resistance to it is telling you something important.

Perhaps there are a million reasons why it’s not getting done.

All of those perhapses could be true. They could all be false.

What we know with absolute certainty is that if no one gets it done – however they get it done, regardless of whether they do or don’t want to do it – you’ll be waking up only to push the now-heavier boulder up the hill tomorrow.

If it’s a frog, it’s not going to get any easier to do in the future. Lace up and start catching frogs.

If it’s kinda-sorta-nice-to-do-but-nonessential stuff, call it as it is and put it in the pile of kinda-sorta-nice-to-do-but-nonessential stuff. That pile will grow to fill whatever mental and emotional space you give it, but the projects that reflect your actual priorities will always win the project cagematch.

Let go of all the attachment about how you’re supposed to feel about getting it done and just get it done. Not every task has to be inspired, fulfilling, meaningful, happy-making, creative, or “at your level.” A commander on a battlefield sometimes has to start firing, an executive sometimes has to sort paper, and a politician sometimes has to take a taxi. Get the job done first - worry about the process later.

Yes, I want you to review your plans and see that the most likely reason things aren’t getting done is that you’re spending too much time not-working the already-too-big plan. It’s not a comforting thought, I know, but our desire for comfort often thwarts our getting our hands dirty, our backs sore, and our souls fulfilled.

Decide and act quickly: What can you drop? What can you push to the kinda-sorta pile? And what will you get done?

P.S. I didn’t include delegate to somebody else for a reason.

P.P.S. Yes, you can. Will you?