Secret #8: Avoid Analysis Paralysis

Analysis paralysis is a huge mistake many students make that stops them from achieving what they want. Analysis Paralysis happens when people spend so much time waiting for the perfect time to do something they never actually do it! There is always something else to research or something you’re not 100% comfortable with yet. No matter how much planning and research we do on anything, we will never know everything about it—that’s literally impossible.

Don’t get me wrong—research and planning is crucial for your preparation to success, but taking action is what will actually make you successful.

You can read every book on how to swing a baseball bat, watch every baseball game, study videotapes of a home run hitter’s swing broken down frame-by-frame, and it won’t mean anything until you actually get up to the plate and swing at a few pitches. The late

business guru David Sandler really summed it up with one of his book titles: You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar. One step in the right direction is more valuable than years of thinking about it. This means if you want to be a leader, you need actual experience leading. No matter how much preparation you do, you won’t be good at it until you actually do it.

So whatever it is you want, ready or not (the truth is we never truly feel ready), go after it. You’ll learn a lot more from doing, failing, and regrouping than from just thinking about it.

Arel Moodie is widely known as America's Top Young Speaker. He has spoken to over 65,000 students in 39 states and 2 countries on the topics of student success, student leadership and student entrepreneurship. He is a leading authority on helping students of this generation succeed in school and in life. He is also the best selling author of the book Your Starting Point For Student Success. To find out more about Arel's book, go to www.startingpointbook.com. To find out more about Arel's speaking please go to www.arelmoodie.com.