The Paradox of Preparation

For the longest time, I believed I was working on my agency. But I was really just planning.
Airtable boards. New strategies. Fancy frameworks. I’d feel productive: ideas everywhere, post-its, vision boards, and mental simulations of success.
But nothing real was moving.

If you’ve ever found yourself spending hours perfecting the plan, you’re not alone. Our brains are wired to love the illusion of progress.

The Dopamine Trap of Planning

Neuroscience gives us a hard truth: planning feels like progress because it gives us a dopamine hit, the same one we get when we check something off a to-do list. Dr. John Salamone, a behavioral neuroscientist, explains that dopamine is more about motivation and anticipation than reward. When you write down goals or watch productivity videos, your brain fires dopamine, tricking you into feeling accomplished even if you haven’t done anything yet.

Planning becomes our mental pacifier. We feel safe in the planning phase.
But that safety is what kills momentum.

Action Builds Clarity, Not the Other Way Around

We’re taught to believe that we need full clarity before we start.

That’s false.

In a 2015 study from the University of Chicago, researchers found that people who took immediate, small actions even without a clear strategy reported higher levels of long-term progress than those who waited to plan everything first.

Why?
Because clarity is a byproduct of movement, not a prerequisite. You don’t figure out your perfect niche before you post 100 pieces of content. You find it through the process of creating, failing, observing, and iterating.

The 80/20 of Progress Is 80% Doing

Planning is only 20% of the job. Action is the other 80%. That’s the brutal truth most people don’t want to accept.

A 2022 paper published in Behavioral Science & Policy showed that overplanning leads to increased stress and procrastination, especially among high-achievers.
When the brain anticipates too many steps ahead, it activates the default mode network (DMN) the part responsible for self-reflection and overthinking.
The result? Paralysis by analysis.

You don’t need a 50-step launch roadmap.
You need the first task and the courage to do it before it’s perfect.

The Maker’s Way: Create, Ship, Repeat

The world rewards what you ship, not what you sketch.

You don’t need a master plan. You need momentum.
What looks like mess from the outside: scrappy builds, rough posts, early-stage projects is actually the path to mastery.

Great founders, artists, and creators didn’t wait until the timing was right.
They acted. Repeatedly. Imperfectly.

Take Elon Musk. His early product launches like the first Tesla Roadster or early SpaceX rockets were deeply flawed. But each launch gave feedback. And feedback made the next version better.

The lesson: No plan survives contact with reality. But actions do.

How to Escape the Planning Loop

There’s no hack but here’s a mindset shift I live by now:

Start the habit. Post the first piece. Build the ugly version. Email the first cold lead.
Let your learning curve come from the doing.

Even if you fail, you move forward.
And forward is all that matters.

Closing Thought

The graveyard is full of brilliant plans that were never acted on.
Nobody will remember your Airtable board.
But they’ll remember what you built.
They’ll see your work. They’ll feel your story.

So stop tweaking. Stop waiting for perfection.
Take the next real step today.

Because action isn’t the result of planning.
It’s the cure for it.