Top o’ the Mornin’ to Ya!
TLDR:
Stop letting “should-a, would-a, could-a” trick your unconscious into thinking you’ve already acted – only “did” gets the results.
What?
My old mastermind facilitator Aaron Walker’s mother had this phrase she’d always say – something like “Should got nothing and did got it all.” I need to look up the exact wording on one of my t-shirts, but the message stuck with me. “Should-a” thinks about doing it, “would-a” says “I would do that, but first I need to do this other thing,” and “could-a” is still calculating and figuring it all out. Meanwhile, “did” actually does the thing and gets all the benefits and rewards. It reminds me of that old riddle: Five birds are sitting on a wire, one decides to fly away – how many birds are left? The answer is five. Deciding doesn’t get the bird off the wire. You actually have to take off and fly.
Why?
I’m sharing this because “should-a, would-a, could-a” actually tricks your unconscious mind into believing you’ve already done something when you haven’t. It’s that sweet poison I talked about yesterday. Your unconscious believes you’ve taken action just because you thought about it, planned it, or decided on it. This kills your drive to actually follow through. A few months ago, we discussed how our conscious mind sets goals but our unconscious derails them. This is the flip side – we show our unconscious something we’ve “done” through thinking about it, and our unconscious says, “Oh cool, did that! Great. Got it.” Then there’s no internal push to actually move forward because we’ve tricked ourselves into thinking it’s already been accomplished.
Lesson:
The difference between success and stagnation isn’t in your intentions, decisions, or calculations – it’s in your actions. “Should-a, would-a, could-a” are temporary visitors in your vocabulary that must immediately lead to decisive action or intentional inaction. There’s no middle ground. When we let these words hang around, they become comfortable squatters in our minds, giving us the false satisfaction of progress without any actual movement. Your unconscious mind can’t distinguish between vividly imagined action and real action, which is why thinking about doing something can actually prevent you from doing it. The antidote is immediate, decisive action that follows through on your decisions. Not just making decisions, but taking decisive action – actually following through with your word.
Apply: Identify one thing you’ve been “should-ing, would-ing, or could-ing” about this week. Right now, either take immediate action on it (even a small first step counts) or make an intentional decision to NOT do it and remove it from your mental list. No more middle ground. If it’s important enough to keep thinking about, it’s important enough to act on today.
You be blessed!
