You can find serenity in knowing that instead of constantly talking and complaining, you have to shut up and just do it! I moved out of my mother’s house when I was nineteen years old. I moved into my own apartment while I worked one full-time job, one part-time job and paid my way through college. In the years that followed I got married and continued to work while I finished a bachelor’s degree, a law degree, began having children started businesses and eventually this blog. All of these were things I wanted to do, planned to do, dreamed of doing and talked about doing. However, none of them happened until I decided to shut up and just do it.
I have a friend, a smart woman, a nice woman a woman anyone would be happy to call a friend. I have known her for more than two decades. For all that time she has been planning to run a business. She has great ideas and notebooks, dozens of notebooks full of wonderful ideas, plans and strategies. If she ever actually decided to run her business, it would be successful and profitable. Twenty years from now, I am confident she will still be writing her plans in notebooks or typing them into the current smart device. I am not confident she will take the steps necessary to shut up and just do it.
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Recently, I met a friend for coffee. This woman is smart, charming, creative, nice and funny. Our friendship is a new one, and I like her and respect her. She has an idea for an arts related business. She has dreams, plans, ideas and talent. Over the last year, she has been doing a lot of talk about this business. She has talked to me, her siblings and even strangers about her dreams and plans. She is different from my first friend. She has made and sold some beautiful pieces of art. She set up an online store, a website and a Facebook page. When we met for coffee, I was helping her with some business planning ideas and she knew a lot of the information she should have known and made plans to get the information she did not have. She just did it, she just started working her business.
Like most people I have had some major problems. My husband was hospitalized when I was 32 weeks into a high risk pregnancy with twins. One of my daughters almost died in a car accident. During both of those tragedies I was able to keep things moving, care for my children, continue to work and keep my family moving. People ask me how. I tell them I prayed and then I just did it. The church girl in me has been raised to know that faith without works is dead and that to whom much is given, much is expected. As a result, I believe God wants me to pray and move in the face of tragedy, happiness and opportunity. That is how I get through all I get through with a smile and a good attitude. I pray and I just do it.
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When you have plans for a business, a family or an opportunity talk about it, dream about it make plans about it. But eventually, just shut up and do it. Take action, move, get things done. Your destiny is not some mysterious thing, it is a thing you control. Take the driver’s wheel of your life and just do it, whatever your it happens to be.
In conclusion, you can find serenity in knowing that instead of constantly talking and complaining, you have to shut up and just do it! so, the question for you this serene day is, when are you going to shut up and just do it, whatever your it is?
Thank you for this. Very inspiring. Makes me want to shut up and just do it. Time to stop talking about it.
GRITTY IT’S ‘CLOSER’ TO REVOLTING
You’re so right. A person can go a lifetime writing down ideas of what they want to do and never get to it because they keep planning. Hopefully your friend and the rest of us reading it will remember that the next time we write down a great idea…. to stop and just do it! Thanks!
It is also a great thing to pray and have faith that God has it all taken care of even if we don’t see it yet. Having a great attitude can even make the darkest of times have a light at the end of the tunnel!
shut up and just do it. i love it.
So many women lack the confidence to move forward because we fear we’ll “do it wrong” or people will criticize.
But at least we’re moving forward and doing something!
Woo!! When it’s real it’s real…but when it’s real you can heal. Thank you for this post. Less talk more action for me. Even the Bible says, “Idle chatter leads to poverty. “
Janeane – your “just do it” mentality is such an inspiration and definitely a motivation! You continuously support and encourage others. It’s a blessing to have someone in your circle that sees the potential and holds you accountable. Thank you for this great reminder to not use excuses as crutches but catapults!
I love this post. Great point and well said.
TOTALLY Agree Stop Whining& Just Do It!! LOL!
I had a fear of switching from blogger to WordPress, but after some talking with fellow bloggers, I decided to just get over it and do it! It’s a lot of work, but I am determined to get this out of the way!
This year I have forced myself to shut up and just do it, when it comes to a few different things!
It is great to be a dreamer and a doer. I am know for kicking people to get them going. maybe I should just send them to you post. 🙂
I try to not live with excuses. I try to live my life with a can do and do it now attitude.
I am so excited for you about the opportunities for your vlog. It is so wonderful that you took control and send out TWELVE ideas!!!!! Good for you.
It is good that you have your family behind you to help you with the get up and go. Not everyone is a self starter, some people need someone behind them to cheer and push them to greatness I am glad you have found that.
Some people need some push or just leave them alone and they will work things out on their own.
Good advice! So many people live by excuses! Thanks for posting this!
Love this– sometimes you just need a kick to get going!
I can’t tell you how many times I want to just yell this at my office. Too much talk and not nearly enough action.
I have also suffered some tragedies in my life but it’s so important to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Especially when you’re lost and feel like you’re treading water.
Exactly what Lisa said!
I can see that there are different types of people out there who may not have the same ambition, confidence and drive as others. I often wonder what it would take to get some people going. It’s a nice philosophy that you have here that’s for sure. God doesn’t like idleness at all. If you know what He wants you to do, it’s definitely best to just shut up and do it! I guess all you can do besides continue to encourage is to pray for your friend who still is sitting on plans while taking no action. 🙁
It is hard to move forward when times are rough. I always try to walk into my fear. I find it is not as scary on the other side as I thought it would be.
You have no idea how badly that quote resonated with me TODAY. Thanks!
There are a lot of things I need to either shut up or just do. But sometimes there just don’t feel like enough hours in the day! So maybe I’ll say “back burner” instead of shut up and revisit them later 🙂
I am a “get it done with no excuses” person and teach my kids that same thing. My son says often “Make miracles not excuses” and I love it! I like to say “there is so much to be done in the world, it may as well be you who gets up and does it.” Great post.
Why is it, I wonder, that people set up our own roadblocks? There are enough uncontrollable things to stop us from meeting our goals without setting up unnecessary additional stop signs. This is a vital reminder to Do It!
Great timing, I met with a friend today who is in a similar place as the first friend you described. A million ideas, plenty of blogs started with maybe one or two posts each, and workshop ideas coming out the yingyang with no cohesive plan to put any of them into action. Sometimes the work needs to be done in order to unveil what one really and truly wants first… we can spin our wheels for decades creating plans around things we think we should be doing 😉
I was having a down day today so this comes at the right time!
This post had a lot of great advice in it!
Thanks for reminding me to TAKE ACTION!
Life is too short not to, right?
Love this post….so true!!! The church girl in me says “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!” I plan to lose some weight and get healthy this year!!
I’m struggling with this right now. I plan to go back to work next year and I have got to pass a test to get licensed. The problem is I cannot get motivated to study. I just need to commitment and work on it!
That is my motto for this year. I just need to get up and do it. Stop procrastinating like I did last year. There was so much that I put off that I could have done but no more!
LOVED your post and totally what I needed today, a kick in the B… ! Thanks for sharing and first thing in the morning I will take my life in my hands and say it how it is…:-)
Gosh I have felt this way so many times… I know so many people who just talk and complain but never DO anything about it. Drives me crazy. I love your outlook of ‘faith without works is dead’ – that is very true.
I love the “just do it attitude”. The more we talk about things, the less likely we are to do them. i know that I am usually the “just do it” type, and that really helps my dreams come true!
Taking action is so key, Janeane. Great message!
That is super advice. I had been planning on changing my blog domain and doing some redirection but put it off because of fear. Now that I finally did it I have plenty of goals I want to reach.
Great advice! Stop procrastinating and get busy!
fantastic advice. Get on track and get r done!
I definitely need to give myself a kick in the butt now and then to keep myself on track with my goals 🙂
Love this kick in the butt motivational post. It’s true that God’s got our back also. We just need to trust that.
Fantastic inspiration!
exactly! I love these posts!
great encouragement, I pray for a lot of changes this year – hope to reach my goals, starting out a bit tough!
Like you, I try to always pray and then move forward. There are many folk out there that need to hear “just shut up and do it” every morning of every day.
My BFF is like that. She is so inventive and always has these huge ideas and plans, but hardly any of them ever make it into action. She has done a few of them, and they’ve done great for her, but it’s just interesting to me to watch and see all her big ideas.
So so true! I used to be afraid to take risks- not anymore. I know several people like your two friends. It’s so much more than just planning! Great post.
This rings so true for me in my life right now. Great advice.
Totally agree. Shut up and do it. That would solve SO MANY problems in the world today!
that is so true! I need to shut up and get cracking on my goals for this year.
Change can be scary, but you do need to make up your mind and do it or not, instead of hem hawing. Thanks.
some people are scared of change and failure. many of us have already had many dissapointments in our lives and venturing onto something new is frightening. Talk with your friend and see how you can help her take the first step.
I think we could all us someone telling us to just “shut up and do it” every now and then. The stars will never be perfectly aligned to achieve what you want to do; you just have to work with your circumstances and do your best. But if you never try, you’ll never get there. I needed this reminder today, so thanks! 🙂
Great post! I agree that sometimes we just need to do more.
This is a great post. We really do need to just shut up and do more. We are in control of our destinies. We are the ones who decide whether we or a success or failure. What a great motivational post.
Great advice. I have had a wonderful opportunity fall into my lap, but until yesterday have done nothing ,but complain about it. I took control and sent out a list of 12 show ideas for my vlog and told my parent media company what I need help with. I feel great today.
Great words of wisdom!!
Such great advice. Sometimes I just have to ‘flip a switch’ in my brain that says, “Get up and do it! It won’t do it by itself!!!!”
Excellent post. You said what I feel like saying to a lot of my friends. Life is a lot of work and if you want to go anywhere you have to suck it up and do it. Many of my friends are so smart and could do so well. However I do have the power of my family behind me and that helps a lot.
You are right, ideas are wonderful, but without action behind them, they are worthless.
You are right! We need to think, plan and analyze, but we have to move, we have to do something.
It is okay to say ouch, but then do something. Even fifteen minutes a day makes a difference, do something.
You’re right – people can have all the ideas they want, but they need to take action to make things come to fruition.
Ouch! That’s all I can say.