Execution

Execution is what brings results.

Results in any endeavor: losing weight, getting stronger, closing more sales, successfully performing brain surgery, cooking a three-course dinner …

You may have a great new business idea, but let me tell you a secret: it’s worthless, if you don’t execute it.

Many of my mentors regularly talk about this concept, the dichotomy of ‘ideas vs. execution‘: Seth Godin, James Altucher, Ryan Holiday, Steven Pressfield, and many more. (All 4 links are related to their work on this topic.)

Ideas are important, in fact, the practice of writing down 10 new ideas every day, which I once did for a whole year, will certainly get your creative juices flowing.

But ideas are not as unique or top-secret as you might think they are, because most people simply never execute on them.

Executing can be scary. It takes guts. It means you have to actually do the thing that you’re thinking about. It means you have to share your million dollar idea with friends and strangers, and let them tear is apart, so that you can make it better.

Execution means that you are probably going to fail before you succeed.

Execution takes drive & discipline. If you want to achieve a 5-minute plank, then you need to put in the time each day, starting with 1-minute, or 30-seconds, or wherever you are today.

Finally, execution requires thoughtful planning.

Projects are made of both dependent & independent tasks. Dependent tasks are those which prevent other parties or pieces from moving forward if they are not done correctly.

Think of this as ‘the weakest link in the chain’. Your team, company, even your physical body … these are only as strong as your weakest teammate, employee, or joint, etc