Doing the Thing

This is an essay I gleamed from Chris Williamson on doing ‘the thing’, whatever that thing may entail. The work that you want to accomplish or do. The brick you want to lay for whatever construct, real or imagined, that you want to make.

Here is a list of things that are not doing the thing:

• Preparing to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Scheduling time to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Making a to-do list for the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Telling people you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Writing a banger tweet about how you’re going to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Hating on yourself for not doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Hating on other people who have done the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Hating on the obstacles in the way of doing the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Fantasizing about all of the adoration you’ll receive once you do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Reading about how to do the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Reading about how other people did the thing isn’t doing the thing.
• Reading this essay isn’t doing the thing.
• The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.”
  — Strangest Loop
  Go do the thing.

Whatever that thing is in life, you won’t know without doing it. You won’t know what the next step of the journey or next things to do, until you can do it. Can you plan? Sure. But you can’t accurately plan for something until it’s something you’re going to do, and you can’t do it with just planning- You actually have to do it. Plans on paper and blueprints alone doesn’t construct a house. You have to do the thing.

You can’t write a book by thinking about it, nor can you write a book by writing notes for what could be in the book. You have to write the book itself, and as you write, it’s a step in the right direction. Sure your notes may make it to the final piece, but if they’re not integral to the work itself, then you’re getting distracted from actually doing the thing.

Set a goal, whatever that is, take action to the steps to do the thing.

Use your words to navigate on what objectively is actually going to amount to doing the thing. If it’s writing a blog post, shooting a short video, or making content online in some other form, or even art. You gotta do it for it to be done.

Build things up, brick by boring brick, and you’ll one day have a construct. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it definitely wasn’t built by people who didn’t build it. Meaning, you need to get motion and action to do it. To manifest a dream or a plan, you have to exert action and effort to bring it into fruition, into reality.

If you build it, they will come.

‘They’ being the target audience that is meant to see it. (Those that are meant to see it are meant to see it, and they will. If not, then they are not meant to see it.)

Just Do It, is the Nike slogan and symbol, Nike is also the name of the Goddess of Victory. And in order to achieve a victory, you have to do something. Not very often are battles won by doing nothing. Even psychologically psyching out the enemy is doing something.

The real tricky part is ‘what is considered doing the thing’. because you could write notes and attach it to a part of the full thing as part of doing the thing. If it takes research, then you have to do research to do the thing. The problem is if we end up doing all research, and take no action to substantiate any sort of working theory that COULD make it to the final piece, then we’re not doing the thing.

And in reality, a lot of actions and things that we do, even if unrelated or tangential in nature, culminate into a symphony where we create or do the thing. So it’s best to aim towards the thing you are doing, and to start doing it. And if you get side tracked, then refocus and aim and shoot again. Do the thing.

This is just a sort of rant, something inspirational, and I think I’ll be writing more things and doing more things. I’ve been away from my ‘post’ from posting for a bit, got caught up in life as the usual, but I’d like to be a bit more active in my rants about Words Meaning Things, and hopefully I can devote more energy and efforts to this.

I am putting forth my plan, which is to write more, and then I am currently moving to a different State in the United States, so after I settle, I would like to do video content on my articles, to add another dimension from a different medium, to talk more about the topics I covered to a wider audience as well.

Thus these articles are my building bricks that I will use to reference and build up something.

My original Goal with Words Mean Things was to write a book, but it took too many pages and notes. I ended up with more than 4,000 pages of words, and I feel as though that may be a disservice to the majority of people seeing as not everyone can go through it without a guide of some sort. So I’m going to write my notes and findings and musings in short articles, and combine the short articles into concise small Zines or E-books, and then promulgate small messages of all sorts using that as a basis.

Eventually I may have a full book, but I think this website will have to suffice as a sort of living document of sorts, as a living book, with many tangential articles.

There is great magic to be had with the languaging that we use, and Words Definitely Mean Things, from a very mundane look to very clandestine esoteric wisdom. I plan on exploring a lot of this, in hopes to spread the love, the knowledge, the wisdom, and broaden communication.

This journey has also allowed me to discover cognitive psychology and depth psychology as well as magic with our subconscious, universal mind, or aspects of our shadow self. And so there is a great boon to learn and know when it comes to words, each word is a thread towards new heights and understandings, and each word is a mountain that can have a new level of mastery of.

Thus I continue to write, and post, so it’s available. And that is my current definition of doing the thing. I shall do the thing. I shall write and post. Then I will make video content on the posts. Then I will deliver E-books and courses on some of the wisdom within.

And that shall be my sort of living book.

Epilogue;

Go Do the thing.

Define what ‘The Thing’ is for yourself. Find a direction and a goal and objectively be able to reach it.

Then go do it.

Worrying about being overqualified or underqualified, or feeling any type of way to anything, isn’t doing the thing. The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing.

Post Script;

I posted this without actually reviewing or editing it, and I have a few typos. I’ve corrected some and added a few more words. But you know what? It was worth it. Because I did the thing.