Isip: A Quick Call to Action

I’m sure everyone has heard of the adage, “Knowledge is power.”

But I have found this adage a bit incomplete. You might know everything there is about a certain topic, but if you don’t do anything with it, it might as well be as if you know nothing.

Insert the cliche introduction about how we live in a wonderful age of the internet. Knowledge is literally at our fingertips. We can know everything about anything with just a few clicks. It’s amazing how we take this plethora of information for granted.

Well, not really. Sometimes, too much knowledge can have its ill effects. Ever heard of analysis paralysis? Basically it’s having too much (sometimes conflicting) knowledge that the subject ends up not doing anything.

I’ve never been a data-driven person, but I have done some research when it comes to improving myself. As of now, I know what I have to do to become a better version of myself. Which brings me back to my first statement. I know the things I have to do, but I don’t really end up doing them.

For one, I know how to go about with my training to increase my speed and endurance, but I just for the life of me cannot wake up early in the morning to run. I really, really hate morning runs. I’ve tried it, and it’s just not for me.

Compounding on this, I know that one way to make waking up early easier would be to sleep earlier, but, again, I cannot for the life of me sleep before midnight! It has become a nasty habit, procrastinating late at night with otherwise petty stuff. I can’t count the days where I told myself to sleep early and end up awake until the wee hours of the morning.

I’ve already analyzed my weaknesses and I know the issues I need to address. It’s all a matter of discipline, really. And replacing old, nasty habits with new and improved ones. I’ve been thinking a lot and that seems to be the most problematic part. Overthinking and underdoing. So I guess now that this post is out here, I need to back up my blabbering.

Being the gameplanner that I am, I have devised a step-by-step process to improve:

1. Go to bed early
2. Wake up early
3. ???
4. Podium finish

With this iron-clad plan, I am sure to become the best version of myself.

Going back to analysis paralysis, I think that the best way to find out for sure is to just try a wide variety of things and find out which works for you. Although there are a few guidelines like don’t try anything new on race day, and don’t try anything without a bit of prior research. Remember, the opposite of paralysis by analysis is extinct by instinct. So if it looks stupid from a distance, approach it carefully.

So, maybe the point of all this is, one way or another, just act. Gather knowledge, but don’t let it stop you from action. Knowledge is power? I like to believe that the appropriate version would be “Applied knowledge is power.”

Boom.

Move safely,

-jgzn