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Full Transcript of Why You Know What to Do but Still Don’t Do It (10 HACKS to Start Taking Action)
[00:00] Intro - Why Clarity Doesn’t Always Bring Action
You know that strange kind of frustration that comes from knowing exactly what you should be doing, but still not doing it? Maybe it’s starting that project, sending the message, going for that workout, setting those boundaries, or finally making that big life change. Deep down you’re actually pretty clear on what you need to do. But for some reason, taking action just never seems to follow.
I’ve definitely been there, asking myself the question “Why can’t I stop thinking about doing the thing, and just do the thing?” If you can relate, I want you to know that you’re not broken, lazy, or lacking discipline in the way you think you are. What you might actually be dealing with is a nervous system that doesn’t feel safe with uncertainty or emotional friction, where your brain has become wired to avoid the discomfort of taking action, even when you know it’s necessary for personal growth.
So I’m going to walk you through 10 of the most effective mindset and behavioral hacks I’ve found for closing the gap between thinking and doing. And these aren’t your typical hype tactics to get you to feel motivated temporarily, but rather, grounded shifts that help you to stop overthinking and start jumping into action, even when you don’t feel ready. Kicking off our list is…
[01:31] HACK 1: You’re Not Aware of the Emotional Cost You’ve Attached to Action
Most people think they avoid taking action because they lack motivation, but that’s rarely the real issue. What actually stops you is the emotional cost you have subconsciously attached to the action. When your brain believes taking a certain action will cost you safety, approval, certainty, or even your identity, it will resist acting no matter how logical the task is.
So you’re not actually avoiding the task. You’re avoiding the feeling you believe will come with the task.
What you can do here is ask yourself one simple question, “What do I think this action will cost me emotionally?” Is it rejection, failure, embarrassment, disappointment, or losing control? Once you can identify the emotional cost, you begin to make sense of the resistance. And when something makes sense, it becomes doable instead of mysterious.
The key here is realizing that fear is what is preventing you from acting. But when you can identify and rationalize your fear, you take away its power. And this is what allows you to move forward in spite of it.
[02:48] HACK 2: Stop Waiting to Feel Certain Before You Move
One of the biggest lies overthinkers live by is the belief that clarity should come before action. In reality, clarity is most often built through action. You feel stuck because your brain is waiting for a level of emotional certainty that rarely ever arrives. And this is because certainty is created through experience and seeing actual outcomes; not just thought alone.
When you stay in your head too long, every option begins to feel more and more fragile and risky. But when you move your body into motion, you allow information, confidence, and feedback to appear. Emotionally, you are shifting yourself from endless speculation into something real that you can respond to.
It’s actually quite counterintuitive. You don’t need confidence in order to take action. What you need is to take action in order to build confidence.
So if you’re overthinking due to feelings of uncertainty, what you can do is make what I call a directional decision. When you make a decision that moves you directionally closer to your goal, this allows you to gain clarity by building momentum. Just remember that momentum will always teach you faster than rumination ever will.
[04:12] HACK 3: Overthinking Is Often a Form of Emotional Avoidance
This one can feel confronting, but it’s also super freeing once you see it. Here’s the thing, overthinking often looks intellectual on the surface, but sometimes, it’s actually just emotional avoidance. Let me explain. When your mind is trying to avoid feelings of disappointment, fear, or vulnerability, it defaults to replaying scenarios and logic-driven thinking because this feels safer than actually feeling what is underneath the surface.
Basically, your brain would rather exhaust you than let you sit with discomfort.
So if you’ve ever noticed how you overthink the most right before taking a bold action, this isn’t a coincidence. This is your nervous system trying to keep you inside familiar emotional territory.
In this situation, instead of asking “What is the right decision?” ask yourself “What emotion am I trying not to feel right now?” When you can identify and allow yourself to sit with that feeling without immediately trying to fix it, your next step often becomes much clearer.
[05:24] HACK 4: Lower the Pressure of Identity on Every Decision
One of the biggest reasons you freeze and overthink is because you attach your identity to every choice you make. You start believing that one decision will define your worth, your intelligence, your future, or your value as a person. This kind of pressure can be overwhelming on your nervous system.
What you have to realize is that you are not your choices. You are the one making them.
If you over scrutinize every move you make as a human being, your brain begins to default to inaction because this feels like the safest way to protect your identity.
In this situation, try reframing your decisions as tests, and not verdicts about who you are as a person. When you start looking at decisions as just ways to collect information about yourself, you eliminate the pressure on your identity. This causes decision-making to feel lighter and more natural, which allows you to act with less hesitation.
[06:35] Don’t Overthink It (Ebook)
By the way, if you’re ready to stop overthinking and reclaim your mental clarity, I’ve put together a free ebook called “Don’t Overthink It.” It’s a simple guide that helps you understand the root cause of overthinking and gives you actionable strategies to build confidence in your decision-making. So grab a copy using the link in the description below.
Get 7 strategies to overcome overthinking and regain your mental clarity!
Learn what overthinking is, where it comes from, and actionable methods that will move you from overthinking to problem solving.
[06:58] HACK 5: Your Brain Is Addicted to Thinking (Not Progress)
Overthinking often feels productive, when it’s actually just mental motion without real movement. Your brain gets rewarded for processing, analyzing, and preparing. And you basically trick yourself into feeling like you’re making progress, when nothing in your external life has changed.
So your mind stays busy while your life stays the same.
I’ve definitely been here, spending hours thinking about growth while still feeling stagnant. What’s going on is your brain prefers thinking because it’s low risk. Taking action on the other hand is high risk because it involves uncertainty. And the nervous system will almost always choose the illusion of safety over real change.
What you can do here is create a simple rule for yourself, where you force yourself to take one physical action after you’ve spent a certain amount of time thinking. Even if it’s a tiny action like sending one message, opening one document, or taking one step forward, what you are doing is training your brain to associate thought with movement instead of just avoidance.
[08:15] HACK 6: Don’t Confuse Self Awareness with Self Trust
Here’s the thing, you can be deeply self aware and still struggle to act. This is because awareness without trust doesn’t always create confidence. It creates hesitation. Here’s why. You might understand your patterns, fears, and all your habits very well. But if you don’t trust yourself to handle the outcome, then awareness can turn into paralysis.
Self trust isn’t built through big life changes that happen to you. It’s built through small promises that you continue to keep to yourself. Your subconscious is always observing you.
Each time you follow through on a small uncomfortable action, what you are doing is teaching your nervous system that it is safe to move even with the awareness of known risks.
In this scenario, what you can do is choose one promise that might feel insignificant in the moment, like going for a short walk or writing one paragraph on a daily basis. If you keep this promise to yourself everyday for a week straight, the practice of consistency alone tells your mind and body that it can trust you to handle whatever comes next.
[09:37] HACK 7: Your Environment Is Quietly Working Against You
Most people try to rely on willpower alone while living in environments that constantly encourage distraction, comfort, and procrastination. If your room, phone, workspace, or usual routines make it easy for you to delay taking action, then your brain will naturally choose the path of least resistance.
Just remember that you don’t rise to the level of your intentions. You fall to the level of your environment.
So if you find yourself overthinking and doing less than you know you’re capable of, what you can do is make one physical change to your environment that makes the behavior you want easier and the behavior you don’t want, harder. This could include putting your phone in another room to stay focused, leaving your journal within arms length so you can grab it, or keeping your workout clothes in a visible location.
By designing your environment in a way that supports taking action, you ultimately spend less time trying to fight yourself and more time being productive.
By designing your environment in a way that supports taking action, you ultimately spend less time trying to fight yourself and more time being productive.
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[10:52] HACK 8: You Overvalue Perfect Starts and Undervalue Imperfect Momentum
A lot of overthinkers try to wait for the perfect emotional state, the perfect plan, or the perfect timing before they begin. But here’s the reality. Life rarely offers perfect starts. What it does offer are small windows of opportunity that will quietly close when you wait too long.
This is why building imperfect momentum will always beat perfect planning that never gets executed.
Even if the first step is awkward, uncertain, or emotionally uncomfortable, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong. It simply means it’s new.
If you’re struggling with taking the first step because you're waiting for perfection, I want you to place this idea at the forefront of your mind: There are multiple roads that can lead to your desired destination.
Even if you have to make a few detours or u-turns along the way, the experience you gain from taking imperfect action will give you the confidence to keep moving instead of staying stuck trying to find the perfect starting point that might never come. Now let that idea sit with you.
[12:10] HACK 9: Your Nervous System Dictates Your Ability to Act
Here’s an uncomfortable truth that people don’t really talk about. You can’t think your way out of a dysregulated nervous system. If your body feels unsafe, overwhelmed, or exhausted, this will make the resistance in your mind an order of magnitude stronger. No matter how strong your intentions are, your body needs to be regulated in order to handle taking action. So this isn’t a mindset issue, but rather a physiological one.
This is why when you are rested, nourished, and emotionally grounded, decisions feel lighter. And on the flip side, when you are depleted, everything feels heavy.
If you want to make it ten times easier to perform and take action, all you have to do is stabilize your body before demanding performance from it. Sleep, hydration, movement, breathing, or even a short walk can radically change your capacity to move. And this is because a regulated body almost always leads to clearer decisions and energy for action.
[13:25] HACK 10: Decide What Kind of Pain You’re Willing to Live With
There’s an interesting principle that I believe applies to all of us. Pain is an unavoidable part of the human experience. You can choose the pain of discomfort from taking action in the short term, but gain a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment in the long term. Or you could choose the comfort of inaction in the short term, but suffer the pain of erosion and stagnation in the long term.
This same principle applies to overthinking. Overthinking might protect you from the immediate discomfort of action, but it will quietly lock you into the pain of future regret.
So the real question isn’t, “How do I avoid pain?” but rather, “Which pain am I willing to live with, the pain of effort, or the pain of stagnation?” One exercise you can try if you really want to increase the impact of this idea is to write down two futures for yourself. One where you act imperfectly, and one where you just stay still. Notice which future ends up costing you more emotionally over time. Then, allow this new found awareness to become your anchor whenever you’re feeling stuck.
[14:47] Closing The Gap Between Knowing and Doing
So here’s a harsh truth that has taken me years to learn. You don’t become confident, disciplined, or self trusting by simply thinking your way there. You become these things by crossing the invisible bridge between knowing and doing, over and over again.
Each time you act in spite of fear, doubt, or overthinking, you’re quietly updating your self image. You stop seeing yourself as someone who only looks to understand, and you start seeing yourself as someone who’s willing to move even without perfect information.
When you gain lived evidence that you can take action even when you feel uncertain, that shift in your mindset changes everything.
So thank you so much for watching, my name is Dexter Lam, and I hope you have a wonderful day.
Bye Bye.
Bye Bye.
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