Think before you act. We have all been told to think before we act. We probably all have told someone else to think before they act. I tell my son most days to think before he acts. He tells me he will; next time for sure.
Act before you think is not something we often hear. I have never heard anyone, other than myself, tell professional people to act before they think. To act without thinking seems foolhardy. Yet it is absolutely necessary. Taking the time to develop appropriate routines and habits is the key.
Have you ever touched something hot and pulled away before your brain realized it was hot? Put your foot in cold water and retracted it before your brain realized it was cold? These are times when it is good to act before you think.
Routines, reactions, and habits enable us thrive. In fact we could not survive it we needed to really think carefully about everything we do.
Imagine if every walking step required careful thought before you took it. Envision a one year old baby taking her first steps. She must think very carefully before each step. She concentrates so carefully on balance, footing, distance, and movement that she will bang her head on the table while watching her feet. She must think about the act of taking a step so carefully she cannot manage the rest of her world.
With practice she becomes able to manage the balance and distance and all the other aspects of taking steps until she can walk without thinking about it. We then will call her a walker; soon to be a runner!
Ever watch a young person meet someone for the first time? They think about it, they think a lot. They fixate on the things to do, the process. How do they stand, where do they stand, what do they do, where are the eyes, what about the hands. They look foolish and inept. We say they have poor social skills.
With practice, most people learn to make initial greetings without thinking about it. Smile, say hi, shake hands, stand at the right distance, and maintain eye contact, whatever is appropriate. As we become socially competent we perform an amazing array of more and more of these actions without actually thinking about them.
Have you ever been driving, and safely made it to a regular destination, when you really wanted to go somewhere different? Oops, on autopilot we will think. Most people can perform even a complex task of driving, and do it safely, without really thinking about it.
So how does this happen?
These are all examples of well developed routines, reactions, and habits.
The key to walking and running fast is to learn to do it without thinking. The key to excellent social skills is to develop the ability to unthinkingly make the right reactions to the standard situation. A highly trained athlete will make the right moves faster than anyone can think. In fact you will hear athletic coaches tell athletes to "just do it" and stop thinking so much.
If you think about your golf swing very much as you swing you will never make a consistently good swing. You need to think about each part of your swing and practice it until it becomes automatic. Then add in another piece until they become automatic together. Eventually the whole swing becomes automatic. Once you have that down, then you can worry about where you are aiming!
Professional and business activities benefit from the same strategy. Professionals determine what they want to do, break it into pieces, decide how each piece ought to be, and then practice it correctly until the automatic response is the desired response.
A true professional will do the right thing, because they practiced doing it right.
Practicing doesn't make perfect. Practicing perfectly makes perfect. Practicing incorrectly only makes ineptitude a habit.
This is why we often find people who have been in business for years and are still struggling. They will tell me they know what they are doing as if I would think it a good thing. They have practiced surviving and mediocrity so long they think it is OK. They don't realize how their habits and routines are holding them back.
We all have habits and routines we would be better off if we changed. My son has a hard time paying attention. I still procrastinate and often am socially inept. Does someone in your life manage always to be 5 minutes late? It isn't any harder to be consistently 5 minutes early than 5 minutes late. It is just their habit.
Often the key to your success is identifying a habit that is in your way, and then deciding how to change it. Then practicing until your routine is desirable.
I have been looking at financial statements for as long as I can remember. When I look at a new set of financials I have a practiced, if perhaps unthinking, way of looking at them. That is why I often can tell people things they don't know about their business quicker than they can imagine possible. I have a practiced professional service company financial statements business eye. They don't. Most Audiologists look at their financial statements as just a jumble of numbers. The CPA looks at them and sees accounting and tax issues, that is what a CPA's practiced eye sees. I see the core of the business, because that is what I have practiced to see. (Of course the Audiologist can look at a group of people and tell me which ones don't hear well. I cannot. I have not practiced that skill.)
What we need to do is develop as many appropriate automatic responses as we can. This is what professionals do. Professionals have learned and studied, they have determined the appropriate response, and then practiced that response until it is the default. It is what they now do without thinking. They can now act without thinking. And spend their thinking time on more important issues.
This is why a student cannot carry on a converstaion while performing their work. They are thinking about the work. After practice they can do the work, and carry on a converstaion at the same time.
This is why I can get up in front of a thousand people and give a comfortable presentation; while actually paying attention to the audience. My presentation is practiced so I am not nervous or thinking much about it. This practiced ability enables me to start, stop, modify as necessary, and give the presentation while really focusing on, and thinking about, the audience. Of course this same reality means I am totally overwhelmed and socially inept in other situations. A dozen second graders will make me really nervous.
I hope this helps you,
Rick
