Get lost first and then find your destination, you get a completely different perspective of life; if not get lost now, then when? -Anonymous
There is a quite interesting saying which I like; doers learn to see but others learn to search.
When I was a little kid, my grandfather used to tell me, always associate with the people who actually have done the real work and gathered the real work experience rather than with those who actually teach but have never done the real work.
I wish I would have applied my grandfather’s words long back.
Innovative work itself makes a network, innovative value flows in different directions with invisible medium
Richard Feynman, PhD, Nobel laureate and author of ‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!’ said, “Never confuse education with intelligence, you can have a PhD and still be an idiot.”
You cannot start a business just by listening a lecture from a Wharton School business professor who has spent years teaching business education but has never run a business in real life.
Talking about business is one thing but go and start a business on the ground is a completely different thing.
We never become good swimmers only by reading books on how to swim well, we become good swimmers by jumping in water and practicing swimming.
The difference between doing the real work and teaching the same means we excite the different parts of our brain.
This is really fascinating to me from my own personal experience because I’ve spent many years teaching the students but actually rarely did the same myself.
I learned and experienced that doers on the ground have three dimensional thinking process but teachers and observers, most of the time, have two dimensional thinking process.
I also saw and experienced that many times doers on the ground do more actual work and utilize their time very judiciously but teachers and observers do more network and planning.
Work is way more important and powerful than networking and planning for those who are especially involved in any kind of value creation and innovation business.
In reality, any type of creative and innovative work eventually itself makes a network, no need for extra time for just networking, innovative value flows in different directions with invisible medium.
Quantification is the best qualification for self-improvement in the areas of health, lifestyle, happiness, and innovative work
Real work and networking have common misunderstandings among us because we always think that we have to network to show our innovative work.
The truth is: any creative work always follows the society wherever we go.
Real innovation speaks in itself, it attracts people because it actually becomes the real reason for our networking.
Remember, if networking doesn’t go that far, then only grounded work will go very far.
One of the most important habits the most successful and healthy people have is they always quantify anything in their lives.
This looks boring and tedious in the beginning but it works amazingly.
This is so powerful to improve and upgrade anything that we do in our life.
If you know exactly how many glasses of water you drink everyday, then it has a huge effect on next day’s drinking habit and your overall health. You can add one more glass of water than yesterday, easy peasy.
This is just one example from my own personal experience when I was having many cups of sugary milk tea in a day in the past.
If I know exactly how many times I drank sugary tea in a day and on what moments then it influenced on next day’s mental mood and overall productivity, I would change it.
It applies every part of our lives. If we don’t quantify what we do in life then we reach a place we don’t know, and we have no way of knowing how we reach in such a unknown place in our lives.
Many type of chronic diseases like cancers appear in our life exactly the same way.
We never tried to measure anything in our lives for course correction.
So, please make a habit. If you do something then try to quantify if possible. Quantification is the best qualification for self-improvement in terms of health, lifestyle, happiness, and innovative work.
Doers have the habit of looking at the minor details of the task they care about and develop endurance, patience, and continuous improvement
As far as we can experience and understand, there are three types of minds: thinking, doing, and just planning.
Thinking mind or our only thought doesn’t guarantee that we do the task. We certainly can teach and transfer thoughts to others by utilizing it.
Doing mind is different, it captures some of the features of thinking including positive thinking as well as some part of just planning mind.
Just planning mind needs actual work done in reality, the actual work done on the ground.
This is one of the reasons that doing mind have an edge over others because the doers are one step ahead in the mental process of the task than others.
If we are on the stage of doing mindset, we can see both sides, thinking and just planning, because we are on the edge.
Remember, if we are on the middle of thinking and planning, we can see clearly the edge, what is on the outside but if we are in another place then we may not see things outside.
Edge is so powerful that it is our rearview mirror of life, by looking on it we can see how we can go where we want to go.
Any doer can certainly quantify the distance between how you can go to where you want to go.
In the process of doing work, our brain produces different chemicals than just thinking and planning. When we associate more with other doers, our brain also anticipates the doer’s mindset.
One key distinction is any theoretician including teacher performs the job by teaching the material to others and they give exam for others, but the doer does the same for herself or himself.
What doers do is they show up, do the work, and take an exam. They prepare for themselves, they read for themselves. They enjoy the process without expecting anything in return.
If we enjoy the process, we become a whole different individual every single day.
Author Austin Kleon has written a must read book “Show Your Work” and he shares about the importance of process rather than product, and the benefit of doing something small everyday.
This book is a must read book for those who are in the business of creativity and innovation.
Doer actually has the habit of looking at the minor details of the task they care about.
The key point for them is how to develop endurance, patience, and continuous improvement.
They develop these characters unknowingly with practice everyday.
Doers always have a good attitude upon invention, creation, and innovation which acts as a competence over their skill
One research shows that doers have a secret power they never tell to anybody but they just optimize their task themselves just by doing a little bit polishing every time.
They are always honest with themselves, but don’t tell all of their processing steps in public until some time.
It’s essential to keep some of our working secrets to ourselves as catalysts. Our little treasures, nobody knows outside.
Some tiny habits and thought processes are our own treasures to empower and inspire us. Sometimes it’s better not to say anything about our work, but to tell ourselves, and just enjoy the process.
Doers develop these tiny habits to recognize these precious moments.
It is true that many doers may not get the desired goal all the time but every day they satisfy their inner self, they improve their inner design.
They see and experience their inner innovative character daily.
Sharpening the inner creative character is contagious.
Albert Einstein said “Creativity is contagious, pass it on.”
Creativity is an indefinite resource, the more we look for, the more we find. This is the motto for any doer who devotes into any sort of creation.
Doers don’t anticipate any great creation but they do anticipate a different creation in their own imagination.
This is the reason Michelangelo viewed himself as a sculptor and created the Sistine Chapel Ceiling.
This is the reason that Charles Darwin took 20 years to finally publish his landmark work, ‘The Origin Of Species‘.
This is the reason that Thomas Alva Edison, one of the most prolific inventors, held a total of 1,093 U.S. patents in his lifetime.
These are the living proofs that for some people, creations and innovations are too contagious.
One of my favorite and inspiration person, Richard Branson, a magazine producer, who originated the idea of renting Boeing and later started the airlines industry along with a series of other successful companies.
In his memoir, ‘Finding My Virginity‘ Branson takes us inside his full circle of life from reinventing his companies in the midst of financial crises, devastating personal losses, and tackling the planet’s biggest challenges. All of his life’s ups and downs made him today’s ultimate entrepreneur.
There is always one more person that appears in my mind when I see the word doer: Winston Churchill.
He was a best selling author, painter, a gifted journalist at age 20, he became a member of parliament in the UK, subsequently, he became prime minister two times, and served his people.
As a prime minister during most of World War II, Winston Churchill rallied the British people and led the country from the brink of defeat to victory.
What a doer!
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
A doer of rare versatility.
In his biography ‘Churchill‘ by Andrew Roberts, there is description of five ‘elements’ to great oratory. First is the exact appreciation of words, and the continual employment of the best possible word. I also believe that this is also true for many other successful doers of the modern society.
Do doers have a way of coming up with big ideas of creation and innovation in their mind?
This is a complicated question to answer but both creation and innovation lie in doer’s bucket list.
One of the ingredients of doers, as mentioned in above paragraphs, regarding creation and innovation is they have a good attitude upon invention and innovation which acts as a competence over their skill.
Conclusion
After studying some of the most prominent doers of modern society, I found one most fascinating thing about them is they know everything is temporary in their lives, therefore, they don’t waste time regretting and debating.
They always know it and do the work in the same way.
They know, we all are temporary, our life is temporary, our house is temporary.
Our money, our relationship, our cat and dog, and our cows all are temporary.
We have an expiry date sticker on us, which only we don’t know but there is sticker already.
If we realize this every single day, we certainly become doer, we try to leave a legacy, and we live a great life.
I’m also getting some taste of good feeling that this good feeling comes in life only after doing something good.
Feeling good also comes after reading or listening or watching something good. But feeling good after doing something good creates ripple effects in our lives permanently. Nothing comes close to this amazing experience.
Remember, it doesn’t matter what we say and teach everyday consistently, what matters is what we do everyday consistently.
As Maria Popova, founder and editor of Brain Pickings and author of ‘Figuring‘, said; nothing beats the consistency driven by the deep love of interesting work.
Figuring is an amazing uplifting book, it is that kind of book which satisfies so many questions through the the lives of historical figures across centuries and dimensions including science, literature and art. A book written for love, meaning, and beauty of life.
Yam Timsina, PhD, writes primarily on health basics, scientific progress, social upliftment, and value creation.
Disclaimer: “Please note that some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through them, at no extra cost to you.”
