Go ahead. Do it poorly. Just do it!

My husband always says, one of the reasons I am successful - is I get projects completed.  I may not do them perfectly - but I get them done and that puts me well ahead of people who don't complete tasks at all.

He's right.  Don't worry about doing things well. Go ahead and do it poorly. Just - do it!

Here is a graphic that explains it better than I can.

I find this is especially helpful advice for the times I've been depressed or mentally distressed.  The hardest part for me - of climbing my way out is the knowledge that anything I do in a distressed state - is not going to be my best work. Heck - it's probably not even going to be good work.

But if I just do it anyway - I get it done. This can be as simple as convincing myself to go to the mailbox and pick up the mail.  It helps me to keep moving forward even when I really don't have it in me to do much.  And little progress - is still progress.

Overtime, that little bit of progress adds up.

My husband and I recently purchased a REALLY cheap robot vac.  It's small. It doesn't have a large canister.  It doesn't map the floor. It just randomly moves about sucking things up.   And we love it!  It's great!

Why?  Because we are comparing it to not vacuuming at all.  This things doesn't cover the entire floor when it goes out. Heck- it may miss a room entirely. But it vacuums part of the floor. And over the period of a week - it probably gets to 90% of our floor. Which is 90% of the floor vacuumed imperfectly - which is way way way better than zero percent of the floor vacuumed perfectly. 

So go ahead - do it poorly. Just do it. 

I have so many problems with this.

I came across the following statement on facebook. I have so many problems with it
POSITIVE PRAYING is more effective than POSITIVE THINKING! It is more powerful!

I am not a huge fan of positive thinking as I tend to think it is unrealistic thinking. I like positivity – but realistic positivity coupled with – action. You know – to get those positive things you think should be done done?  Yeah – you have to take positive action, or nothing will get done.

If I dislike positive thinking so much why do I have a problem with the quote?  Well …. as ineffective as I feel positive thinking is, I think positive praying is worse. Much much worse.  It’s like positive thinking on steroids.  All the problems with positive thinking multipled.

One of the biggest problems we have with positive thinking is that once people are positive a positive outcome is going to happen, they stop taking positive action to make that outcome a reality. People who engage in delusion positive thinking do less work to create their future then those who are more … pessimistic.

People who think positive praying is going to help get things done are deluding themselves even more. Because they aren’t just thinking good things will happen. They are convincing themselves that they are doing something to make good things happen, all while doing nothing actually tangible to make good things happen.

Look. I want good things to happen as much as then next person. But thinking positive thoughts and positively praying for good things doesn’t make good things happen. Positive action makes good things happen.

I don’t care if you pray or think or think about praying. What I want is for people to get out into the world and actually do good things for other people.  Rant over.

Change the world or just how you approach it

I was reading John Rosemond's column today (http://www.rosemond.com/johns-columns/correct-parental-thinking/) and I was struck immediately that he talked about Humanism. Granted, he did so in a negative way.  He was talking about a quote from Norman Vincent Peale, "Change your thinking, and you change your world." And he rightly pointed out that, well, that's impossible. It's magical thinking. And then, he accused Humanists of engaging in just such magic thinking by saying, " A change of thinking doesn’t change THE world, and I’m reasonably certain that he (Peale) wasn’t a humanist, so he really didn’t believe in the idea that each of us constructs our own, equally valid, reality. "

As a Humanist, I just want to say that I don't think any Humanist thinks we construct our own equally valid reality.  We don't.  Reality is external to us. How we perceive reality though, is something we do seem to control. And in this matter, I think I agree with Rosemond when he rewrites the Peale quote to say, "If you change your thinking, your entire worldview changes.”

And yes, a change in worldview can be an incredibly powerful thing. For instance if you believe you can choose your actions, you will actively choose your actions. If you don't, you won't.  For a Humanist this is central because, while we know we can't magically wish our way out of problems, we do believe we can do something constructive to solve our problems by making better decisions through rational thinking and by taking constructive action.

Here is the Humanist perspective on this matter. If you want to change your reality, just thinking differently isn't enough. You have to actually act differently too if you expect to create different outcomes for yourself.