When did you start doing?

by vernsanders on July 16, 2010

I led a webinar yesterday on the topic of Leading your Choir and Breaking Down Walls. If I were tweeting on that it would be 3 ways to increase the impact of your choir in worship. I’m speaking on the same topic next week at the National Worship Leaders Conference. And, the fact that I have written an E-book makes me something of an expert. In my “other” role, as always, I’m working on new things for Creator, and the Creator Leadership Network.

And I’ve been wondering…when did you start doing? I mean when did you stop reading about something, or researching it, and start doing it?

Let’s be clear…I think if you are not learning, you are dying, educationally speaking, and in life. But there comes a point where it is time to stop investigating, and just start doing.

I remember one distinct point in my life, where, after subscribing to Inc. magazine – a great magazine, by the way – for about 10 years, and Fast Company – another great business mag – for somewhat less than that, I realized that some of the same themes were coming around again. Now this is not a bad thing, because in any educational situation, there are some things that need to be addressed more than once, or from a different perspective, etc.

I was reading those magazines because I needed to learn about “best practices” in business. But I suddenly realized that I was spending more time reading about business than doing it, and I canceled my subscriptions. I still believe in the content of those mags (my daughter now subscribes, and I still read them when I’m at her house), but I needed to be doing rather than reading…my life had gotten too busy to do both.

I’ve been speaking at conferences a lot over the past few months, and, as you might expect, the questions tend to center on the same topics (that’s why I’m out there trying to provide answers, after all…). But in music, and in business, I’ve found that there is more to finding answers than just reading or asking questions…both of which are good. There comes a time when you just have to do something and see if it works. And, like Edison with the invention of the light bulb, learn from failures and keep trying things to see if they work. So I was/will be very clear in my web/seminar that some of the things I’ve figured out come from experiments (I don’t talk about the ones that failed much…).

What about it? Did you have a moment when you stopped reading and started doing? Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

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