The other day we answered a question that’s very common among some readers (see: If I were you, what would I do?). There are very intelligent people with lots of ideas in their heads who still don’t know what to do. Perhaps having too many ideas, and constantly analysing each of them, leads to what’s known as “analysis paralysis”: a kind of well-intentioned procrastination that still doesn’t get us out of the rut.
To tackle it, today we’re going to use Marc Chernoff’s reply to a reader who admitted that he wanted to achieve many things and had lots of ideas in mind, ideas that could be easy to carry out, but that when the time came to take action, doubts crept in, he got scared and started worrying about his chances of failing or succeeding.
Chernoff answered him with a story, which we’ll look at below:
“A woman had been lost in the desert for three whole days without water. Just when she couldn’t go on any longer and was about to collapse, she saw what looked like a large lake a few hundred metres ahead of her. ‘Is it really a lake, or a mirage caused by my weakness?’ she wondered.
She summoned the last of her strength and headed towards it to find out. It wasn’t a mirage: it was a large lake of fresh drinking water.
Yet, although she was literally dying of thirst, she didn’t dare drink. She just knelt beside the lake, staring at it.
A man riding past on a camel saw the scene. He noticed the woman’s dry lips and how weak she was from lack of water, and he found it strange that she didn’t drink the water she so badly needed.
He got off his camel, walked over to the woman and asked her: ‘Madam, why don’t you drink some water?’
She looked at the man with anguish on her face and tears in her eyes, and said: ‘I’m dying of thirst, but there’s too much water here, and I don’t think I can drink it all.’
The passer-by smiled, crouched down, scooped up some water in his hands and gave it to the woman to drink. He told her: ‘Madam, you need to understand that you don’t have to drink all the water to quench your thirst. You just need to take one sip. And then, if you like, another.'”
That’s the end of the story, which I’m sure many readers found silly, just as silly as the behaviour of this woman who was dying of thirst and wouldn’t drink.
And if this woman’s behaviour and the story are so silly, why are we so silly ourselves?
What happens to the woman in this imaginary story is what happens to most of us very often. When we think about goals, we don’t think about the small sip; instead we try to picture whether we’ll be able to drink the whole lake or not. In other words, we think about the result, not about the small actions.
Likewise, a person with lots of ideas in their head is very likely to end up more paralysed than someone with only one idea, because the latter doesn’t have much to choose from.
Focus less on the future and more on the present.
Nobody can predict exactly who they’ll be or what they’ll end up doing in the future. Whether we dwell on the past or obsess over the future, we’re creating unnecessary blockage and stress. Focus on the first step you need to take now: the first sip.
If you’re thirsty for success and focus on the first sip, you’ll enjoy it. If you think about drinking the whole lake, you’ll feel overwhelmed before you’ve even had the first sip.
That’s why people often say we should enjoy the journey, not just arriving at our destination.
Sometimes we don’t know exactly where we’re going, but if we’re taking sips of water, we’re quenching our thirst.
If you have lots of ideas in mind and don’t know where to start, it’s simple: start with one of them. Take that first step. As Warren Buffett says, the best way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.
And if you’re afraid of failing, remember the question you should ask yourself: what would I do if I weren’t afraid of failing? The answer is often your first sip.
Don’t know exactly how to do it, or don’t have all the experience yet? Then congratulations, because you’re just like anyone who ever started something (a business, a career…). You learn much more by walking than by reading about how to walk. Of course, if you combine the two, you’ll end up an expert walker.
So… where are we going to take the next sip?
Featured image: Luca Galuzzi, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons.
