One of my internet heroes, Destin Sandlin, is the founder and personality of Smarter Every Day. Destin is attributed with making the following statement.

"In a world of talkers, be a thinker and a doer."

He may have made it at ThinkerCon in 2018, but my limited research can’t be sure. (Also, ThinkerCon ended up being a one-time event, which is a real shame.) He even made a cool print of it that I have on my wall.

Because it’s on my wall, I see it and think about it all the time.

“Be a thinker and a doer.” - Don’t just think. Don’t just do. We need to do both.

Think AND Do.

“In a world of talkers…” - There is so much talking and noise in the world. This is especially true on the internet and on social media. I struggle with thinking and talking too much. I set goals and make plans. I think about and talk about these goals and plans a lot. But then I fail to act on these plans. I fail at the doing part.

Interestingly, though, there are times when I think about something and almost can’t help but move straight into the “doing.” I don’t see these times as times when I don’t do enough thinking, but as times when the doing overwhelms the thinking and talking and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. (I’ll write more or post a video about a project like this soon.)

So here’s my reason for writing this post (ahem… talking about it). I’m using this to think about what this means, so I can be more intentional at doing.

Action/doing often breaks down through the intention-action gap. You can read more about that here: https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/psychology/intention-action-gap

Also, how can I help my students, who are required to think a lot in my classes, take more action and do more?

And here’s my challenge for you:

"In a world of talkers, be a thinker and a doer."