"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." -Walt Disney? What do you understand by this line?

One of the most successful individuals of all time is Walt Disney. Disney reached incredible levels of success. Any advice on how to succeed from him should be cherished. One of his quotes speaks to the importance of moving past the mental aspects to action to succeed.

He said, “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” Too many times we keep thinking and talking through our goals. Instead we need to learn to start taking action.

Years ago, I worked at the second largest chamber of commerce in the country. I was tasked with understanding the local startup community and building out resources for early stage businesses.

I was able to get acquainted with many of the startups in town. There were many different types of startups.

Some were founded by individuals working for a big company who decided that they could strike out and do it on their own. Some were tech startups committed to finding venture investments. They expected growth to come quick and at extreme levels. Some were individuals looking to live out a dream and make a living from a hobby.

One consistent theme that I ran into was that many were too focused on the plan. They would spend years forming and adjusting their business plan. Normally this is doing due diligence. However, more often than not, there was no action being taken.

It amounted to procrastination. They feared that their idea wasn’t viable and didn’t want to test the market by trying to sell a product. They didn’t take action steps towards the realization of the business. They stayed in startup mode hoping that they could skip those early days of struggle.

But I noticed a trend with the successful ones. The ones that seemed to find success all seemed to move beyond the planning stages relatively quickly. They would test the market.

This allowed them to adjust and make changes. Most would realize flaws in their thinking about the market. Or they would learn how to better design the product. They would adjust and take more action.

It seemed like every time I checked in with these individuals, they were doing something. With the other individuals, when I checked in, they always seemed to have another plan. The new plan reflected feedback about their previous plan. But the feedback came from other people's opinions not from learning from trial and error.

I am a strong believer in planning and thinking through something before jumping in. It is crucial that we plan before we act.

But that doesn’t mean that more thinking or more planning is always the answer. Many times, the answer is to quit talking and start doing.

The systems and habits approach capitalizes on this by adding behavior changes to your life. It doesn’t mean you can’t change and adjust the plan as you learn and grow. But it goes from dreaming, talking and planning and moves it to doing.

I am very aware of how much I am planning. I am the type to overthink and over plan. So, I watch for this and make sure I get to action as soon as I can. But if you are the type to act without thinking, then start to take the necessary planning steps. This will make sure you prepare and do your due diligence before jumping in.

By knowing yourself you can efficiently move from talking to doing. If you get that right, you can adjust and change. You won’t be too locked into one plan because you invested too much time. You will be able to see the flaws in the plan as you act it out and then make changes to help you reach your goals. You will be able to quit talking and begin doing.