Productivity Hack: Shut Your Yap And Move Your Hands Instead

Florence Nightingale

“I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions which bring results.” – Florence Nightingale, Born May 12, 1820.

This quote can be taken as kind of funny – since for us, making words out of feelings IS the action that brings results.

But let's say that Flo strictly meant not wasting the power of our ideas on idle talk or in writing about intentions and dreams.

Rather you should take that energy and funnel it into the stuff you know you need to do to move your life/business/passion farther along the trajectory of your ambitions and desires.

Discussing dreams and goals with anyone but a partner will not energize or motivate you. In fact, it will likely drain you of that vital, creative spark – the spark that SHOULD be spent making that dream or goal a reality.

Be more stoic. Hold your tongue. Try it short-term just to get a taste: for the next 30 days, don't tell anyone or write a post about anything you're going to do – just do it instead, and then show people after.

You'll end up with a fat pile of results instead of a fat pile of IOUs you've written yourself.

Focus on the result, and the acquisition of it. Good, bad, small, large, success or failure.

If it serves to bring the result, prioritize it, and do it. If it doesn't further your pursuit of that result, then skip it, think of something that does, and then do that instead.

For me, writing is the action that brings results. So I try to do that. Every time I tell someone about my plans, I end up not doing them. Revelation scratches the itch too hard and soothes it. Keep the itch. Scratch it by taking action.

Watch how far you'll go.

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