Information Overload – Stop Reading and Implement!

             “A scientific study did a demonstration showing that high-priced placebos, or sugar pills, are more effective than low-priced placebos.”—notice in The Reader’s Digest

Every now and then I get “information overload” syndrome. This is when my eyes cross and I just want to take a nap or play FreeCell all day on my computer. I used to get this syndrome sometimes when I was a child and flipped through the 7 television channels we used to have, walked into a bookstore, looked at all the brightly colored magazines on the newsstand, or opened up our World Book Encyclopedia to research a term paper.

But now there are 500 television channels, 5 million-plus books listed on amazon.com, and zillions of pages of ezines, web sites, wikkipedia, etc. All the information you could ever want about how to be richer, smarter, more successful, healthier, thinner, younger (or at least look younger) is readily available at your fingertips. And the average American receives 3,000 marketing messages about all of that every day!

So why aren’t we rich already? Smarter? More successful? Healthier?

Years ago, I heard a speaker ask the audience “How many people would like to lose a couple of pounds?” Nearly everyone raised their hands. Then she said, “How many people know what to do to make that happen?” Again, everybody raised their hands. “So why don’t you just do it already?” she asked. “You have the information to produce exactly the result you want!” There were sighs and groans all around.

The reason is this: it isn’t information that counts – it’s the implementation of the information. And that requires constant self-motivation, willingness to embrace change, willingness to fail until you get it right, and constant application of new behaviors that are outside your comfort zone.

Arrgh.

Yes, you need to have the information. But all the good information in the world won’t help you unless you put it into an action plan. That’s the hardest thing for human beings to do. Interrupting our comfortable habits – even if destructive – to change and do things differently long enough, consistently enough, to make the new information take hold and operate our lives in new and better ways with more successful outcomes, is tricky.

This is why it is important to have a great coach or teacher to help you. Because they can see your blind spot, the thing that keeps you from your dreams, and they can keep watch and help you around it, over it, through it. You can’t see it because it’s your blind spot, but a good coach can. The great coaches won’t let you get away with your old tricks and shenanigans. They know their job isn’t to be your best friend, but to get you to be your own best self. That’s why you hired them, and that’s why they’re worth the big bucks. In the book, The Millionaire Next Door, the authors show how millionaires save money by resoling their shoes, buying second-hand cars, and living in modest houses. But in the last chapter, they point out that they pay top dollar for one thing: professional advice. Aside from getting superior information, the more you pay, the more likely you will pay attention - and then implement the information.

And then all the results and rewards and dreams you wanted will be yours!