The Fetishisation Of Implementation
“It’s all meaningless unless you’re taking action”. That might not be the exact quote, but I have certainly said words to that effect numerous times over the years. To some extent, I do still believe it: if you’re just thinking about doing something, you’re not really doing it. In order to have a business, a new product, a change of direction you need to take action rather than plan it for six years. I do, however, think that it’s possible to put too much emphasis on action and implementation – and that I have definitely been doing so. There is a true difference between the fetishisation of implementation and actually doing something.
Thinking about it now, I’m wondering whether my emphasis on action was a bit of hustle culture worming its way into my consciousness, re-packaged as “responsible action-taking”. Saying “a plan is no good unless you’re implementing” is the well-meaning sister of “you are only worthwhile if you’re doing stuff”. In the rush to do stuff and take action, we lose so much. We lose the reflection and pondering time, we lose the care and craft in making something, we lose the bigger picture and the smaller details, we lose our sense of joy and accomplishment. These are some things I most enjoy and value in my work, but for a long while I flattened them with the steam roller of action.
There have been two projects this year that would have benefitted from less action. The first was a mastermind that I launched in January. Well, I say “launched” – I made it public without having done much planning, thinking that I would easily be able to make up any launch materials as I went along and that the idea on its own was good enough. Funnily enough, it wasn’t. I had not a peep of interest, and un-launched it (if that’s a thing) a few weeks later. The second project was the Immersion group program I ran over the Spring. This was much more successful and we had a lovely group working together over the course of 3 months. However, again, I hadn’t planned it in much detail, and always felt a little unmoored with it.
With both these projects, I’d taken the “launch before you’re ready” approach. This was always what I’d wished I’d done before launching my coaching services right at the beginning, so I took it to heart a little. There is a real benefit to it, as it’s so easy to spend months and months preparing something that isn’t quite right or doesn’t hit the mark. Particularly if you’re doing something new or different, then talking about it publicly early helps your audience to start their long decision-making process.
However, there is a difference between “start before you’re ready” and “do any old thing”, and I think that I was leaning much more towards the latter, taking action that wasn’t grounded in a plan or intention, doing stuff to be doing stuff rather than doing stuff with real purpose. In the case of the mastermind, this meant that people didn’t see what they needed to make that kind of investment – they didn’t really understand what they’d get, didn’t feel the confidence and enthusiasm from me, didn’t feel inspired. With Immersion, it meant I felt I was always chasing my tail and starting from scratch with the materials as there wasn’t a central, grounded place it was coming from.
I compare these experiences with the launch of The Trail in the summer. I’d spent two months planning that program. It was rooted in a very real problem, and the materials and marketing unfurled very naturally from that spot, like a magician’s never-ending handkerchief. Rather than launch it when I first had the idea I gave myself time to look at each section of that handkerchief so that I was excited and enthusiastic about the concept and really knew it from the inside out. I gave the launch lots of time and space, and used “starting before I was ready” to create coordinated pre-launch materials rather than just stick up a sales page. That launch sold out and there’s now a waiting list for November. But more than that, creating The Trail was one of the best experiences I’ve had in my business, sitting in the sunshine working it all out and taking care over the craft of something I was in love with.
It feels now like action, and visible busyness, has become the measure of whether or not you’re ‘doing it’. It’s that hustle mentality creeping in again. I feel it when I haven’t been on Stories for a while, that need to show that I’m doing stuff so people know… what? That I’m still in business? That I’m still relevant? That I’ve got things going on? Or maybe it’s to prove those same things to myself.
Either way, of course, undirected action is not the best measure of any of those things. Action for the sake of action, if anything, demonstrates that we’re disconnected and flailing around trying to hold everything together. The best way to prove to yourself, and show your audience, that you’re doing great work is to do great work – and sometimes that means going underground and planning a full restructure or writing your book or getting back into alignment with yourself to know where you want to go next. Action feels safe, it’s a crutch when really you sometimes need to just let go and come back to yourself.
So I guess what I’m saying here is to focus on intention over implementation. To stop using the amount you’re doing as the measure of how good at business you are, and instead look at how what you’re doing lines up with a clear, focused intention. To know what you want, what impact you want to have, and do only what you need in each moment to have that – whether that’s taking action or taking a break.
