The Power of Just Jumping In

Sometimes you just have to dive into an undertaking and let the experience itself tell you the direction in which you should head.

When you examine the lives and processes of people who have done amazing things, often you’ll uncover a random path. What I mean by that is it’s a myth that people of great accomplishment navigated to that point through careful planning and a prescribed step-by-step process. That’s just not how life works despite what many motivation and productivity proclaimers might say.

One of the rights of us older people is we get to tell it like it is based on living a life of many decades. Sometimes a bit of mileage matters. As I approach 70, I can tell you that my own life has arrived where it is rather randomly and just about everyone around me arrived at where they are randomly too.

Sure, we can plan some things. We can undertake certain personal tasks and projects that better position us to take advantage of life’s inevitable randomness. But we can’t escape the random. We can never predict with accuracy where our life will go and how it will get there. We try to do that over and over because we’re accultured to believe that’s how life “should” work, but it doesn’t. Life has its own plans, and we better comfortably go with that flow or we’re setting ourselves up for a lifetime of disappointment and confusion.

That said, here’s something I’ve discovered over time that immediately takes advantage of the random and the joys and discoveries it can bring.

Just jump in. Just do it.

If you wait for the perfect time, it will never arrive. If you focus only on preparing, you’ll never do what you’re preparing for. If you read yet one more self-help or productivity book to course correct your life, your life will still likely remain off course.

Arriving at understanding and meaningful learning takes place best when done in the trenches of life’s day-to-day struggles. Those struggles are in the here and now. The ubiquitous and wise advice to “be here, now” or “be present” couldn’t’ be more applicable than it is today.

Want to get fit and healthy? Do a pushup, now. Go for a walk, now. Put down the fork, now. A healthy and fit life happens because of the moment-to-moment decisions we make, not because you just bought the latest exercise app or joined the new trendy gym.

Want to be an artist? Make some art, today. Create something, today. Art, of all pursuits, is about being inspired in the moment. No amount of art school will make you an artist. You are an artist in the moment or you’re not. Your skill will blossom as you’re an artist, not as you’re preparing to be an artist.

Want to write? Write something, now. Use a pen and paper. Use a laptop. Use your phone. Doesn’t matter. Just write something. A sentence. A paragraph. Anything. Writers are writers because they write. And although the best writers tend to also be voracious readers, it’s still the act of actively placing one word after another and moving them around that creates the writer’s life.

Want to change your community? Find something you can do immediately, right now. Attend a meeting. Volunteer for a community event. Call a friend and ask if they want to help you with a local beautification project. Communities get better because people within them make them better. No one’s going to do it for you.

Want to organize your living space? Clean a tiny part of it, now. Toss, donate, or sell something you don’t need, today. Tackle a single drawer or closet, today. It might sound wise to commit to diving into a top to bottom organization project, but living spaces only stay organized or clean because they’re managed now, in the moment, ongoing, indefinitely.

Want to be better educated or informed? Read a pertinent article or book, now. Go to the library and check out a good book, today. Sign up for a class, today. Schedule an informational coffee chat with someone you know is an expert in the subject, today. Learning, true learning, is ongoing and forever. The most educated and informed people realize they’ll never come to the end of their learning so just dive in and start today.

Want a better job? Apply for a new job, today. Don’t have the ideal qualifications? So what? All they can do is say no and getting great jobs is often a numbers game anyway. Talk with someone you know who has a cool job and find out how they got it, today. Schedule a meeting with a career counselor, today. Find a social group comprised of people in the industry you want to work in and plan to attend their next meeting, today. Call the owner or manager of a business you want to work at and ask them how they decide who they hire. People love to talk about what they do more than you might think. The best job situations typically happen because of a convergence of a bunch of different factors. Start adding to all those factors today and it might lead to a cool new job.

Want to have a better social life? Go somewhere and say hi to one person, today. Even if that person is a total stranger, nod your head and say hello. Go to a bar or coffee shop and chat with someone. Join a book club. Join a knitting group. Volunteering for something is a great way to meet other people. It doesn’t matter what vehicle you use to engage with others socially. Just pick something and do it. Human interactions take place everywhere. Allow yourself that gift, today.

I’ll stop here. I think you get my point. So much of what many of us do is constantly prepare to live a life when living a life starts right now, this very moment. We only have so much of life to live. Each of us has only so much time on the planet. Stop planning and preparing so much and start doing and living, now.

Remember the words of John Lennon. “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” Staring living that life rather than constantly preparing and making plans.

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