I can get stuck in planning things, and perhaps you can as well. It’s a way to attempt to control risk.

It builds your confidence to make a decision and start moving. At least you hope it does.But here’s the secret: The confidence actually comes after achieving something. Even if you can envision something, it’s not really confidence. It’s hope.

That’s why we can get stuck in trying to plan the heck out of something.

I’m not saying that you should just do, do, do with reckless abandon – that’s clearly going to far the other direction. Planning has great value in working out the steps, coordinating peoples’ actions, and putting appropriate resources in place.

That can help build confidence, but you’ll never get all the way there until you actually get into action.

That’s one of the great values of prototyping something. Make a mockup, do a test, try it on the small scale. You’re gaining REAL experience from that, and with it the confidence to take the next larger step.

But never forget that results only come from action. Planning is great, but it’s not action. Yet.