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Doing something

Sometimes, all it takes is a nudge.

When that nudge comes from someone well-known, who you have a great deal of respect for, that nudge becomes more than just a simple “hey, you might want to think about this.”

It becomes, “hey, you need to do something about this.”

So, here I am.

It started as an innocuous tweet. I had just listened to Chris Brogan’s podcast with Seth Godin, and my head was spinning with ideas. (If you haven’t listened to it yet, find 20 minutes in your day today and go listen.)

While I fully confess to not reading as many of Godin’s books as I would like, the ones I have read have made me think. A lot. That’s not saying that I agree with everything he writes, because I don’t. But that’s part of what I love about his writing – even if I don’t agree, it makes me think about why I don’t agree and why that matters. It’s very easy to lose track of time and fall down the rabbit hole of your own mind while reading.

And that’s exactly what happened with this podcast.

Brogan and Godin were talking about, in essence, not just doing something, but doing something that matters.

The sticking point, according to Godin: “Deep down, all of us feel like a fraud.”

Whoa.

If that’s not something to make you think, I don’t know what is.

The lesson I took away from the podcast could be boiled down to this: Don’t hold back because you’re worried about what others will say.

How hard is that? Super hard. Super incredibly ridiculously hard.

So the podcast was over, and I did what seemed natural to me – I tweeted about how much the podcast made me think. “Wow. Just finished listening to @chrisbrogan’s podcast with Seth Godin. So many ideas in my head now.”

And the next thing I knew, I had a reply from Brogan in my timeline.

“Get them out of your fingers!”

Whoa.

OK. The nudge I got from the podcast very suddenly became real. And a directive. Don’t just think about it. Do something.

So, here I am. I’m not sure where this whole idea of following through and doing work that matters and trying not to care too much about what other people think will take me.

But I do know this – if a nudge on Twitter from someone I respect but have only met in person once can affect me in this way, how much could I encourage someone else to follow through on their dreams/ideas/passions and make a difference for them?

He’s right. It’s time to start doing.

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