A quick story about the book I found in a little store on Polish Hill

There’s a store in the Polish Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh that my partner loves called Copacetic. It’s the tiniest place on earth, packed to the gills with illustrated books — graphic novels, comics and the like.

We went a few weeks ago to look around. He was chatting with the owner and I had wandered out into the hallway to look at the clearance books when I saw it.

The first business/success/personal development book that I remember reading back in 2005 — The Success Principles.

At the time, I was lost. I had quit my job and had signed up for an online course on career change called The Oxford Program. After that, I started teaching, went back to programming and eventually, 12 years later, started my own business.

I was shocked to find the book at Copacetic because it didn’t really fit in with the vibe there, but I snatched it up and have been rereading it.

The book shares some great principles on how to be successful (stay tuned for a recap later this year); one of the points I read last night was about action.

Instead of ready, aim, fire consider ready, fire, aim.

Most of us spend a lot of time getting ready to do a thing, but actually doing the thing allows us to get feedback and practice which makes us better.

I’ve been trying this myself over on LinkedIn with video. Video can be a difficult medium — we want to look the best, sound the best and say all the right things perfectly. But you’ll never get to that point if you don’t do and keep doing the thing.

So, what have you been aiming to do? How can you take the leap and do the thing?

P.S. I’m a huge planner, but I have a really hard time planning meals. I bought a 4-week meal plan from Budget Bytes and we’re currently in week 3. I love that everything is mapped out, there’s a grocery list for each week and I don’t have to think about what to have for dinner. Plus, we’re making things that we might not have chosen otherwise, which is fun. The moral of the story: sometimes it’s easier to follow a good plan than to make your own.