The Art of Taking Action: Lessons from Japanese Psychology

“Only go straight, don’t know” was one. “Try, try, try for ten thousand years” was another. And a third, a decade before Nike used it to sell shoes, was the phrase “just do it.” The phrase had two slightly different meanings. First, it was to do only one thing at a time and to do it wholeheartedly. “When you are eating, only eat; when you are sleep

If you don’t like what’s happening, rest assured, it will change. If you are pleased with the situation, rest assured, it will change. Those are the rules. Enjoy the game. Build something. Tear it down. Have fun. It will be over all too soon.

This puts you in touch with the reality of your situation. It shifts your attention from your feeling state (boredom, anxiety, confusion) to the concrete reality of the circumstances surrounding your work.

But a popular procrastination strategy is to do something else instead.

Go ahead and get started. Get started without clarity. Take some small steps. Investigate, research, look into possibilities, check things out, talk to people, and… if at all possible – try something out in real life. Be like a cook who needs to make a stew, but doesn’t know what she’s trying to make. Just start cooking and tasting, cooking and tas

if our focus is on effort, then “how” we move forward is of great importance. We consider the impact of our actions on others.

Can you move forward in the face of uncertainty? Can you co-exist with confusion and not-knowing and take the next step? Small steps are an elegant approach to indecision. That’s because each of those small steps sends ripples out into the world. Your situation is never the same from day to day, because the world is in a dynamic state of flux.

“I should write a letter”—“I should reply to a letter.” If you think so, write immediately. You are not doing anything at the time but just think you will wait and do it later.

Morita’s premise—that our thoughts and feelings are mostly uncontrollable—leads to his prescription: Accept your thoughts and feelings. Rather than fight what goes on in your mind, simply accept it.