I’m sorry about this title, but it grabs your attention, does it not? In this fast paced world nothing can be better than to stop pontificating and get stuff done. It doesn’t have to be good, it just has to get you out of your head and into doing something, anything, stop reading this post (not yet, obviously), get off facebook, un-tweet yourself and start doing something.
What sparked this post? Well, I’ve been listening to a couple of podcasts lately. Two have taken up most of my free time and relegated the radio to second best in the car. I’m not a normal podcast listener, I haven’t been doing it for long, maybe 2 weeks, but I have gone through about 50, some are 5 minutes some are 90 minutes. I’m now a pod-binger. 
The two I’ve been focusing my time on are Future Squared presented by Steve Glaveski you can find it at all of your normal podcast places, or go directly to it at Futuresquared.xyz. This podcast is great and focuses on helping people tackle innovation in the enterprise but more than that, it’s allowed me to look at things from a totally different perspective and exposed me to thoughts and people that I would never have found in my normal life. As Steve would say I’m currently disrupting myself. I didn’t realise I needed it, but I definitely did. I love the Fast Fix Friday that Steve did recently, Episode #60 – Gyshido or Getting Your Sh1t Done, really spoke to me. It’s just like Ronseal, exactly what it says on the tin, this podcast helps you set up to Get Sh1t done.
One of the thought leaders Steve interviewed, I think it was Matt Romania, but I may be mistaken, suggested the other podcast I’m listening to, Love your Work with David Kadavy again you can find the podcast on your podcast provider, I use iTunes but it’s up to you.
You can find out more about David at Kadavy.net. I listened to his podcast named Start Where You Are. This was a reflective look at his previous 12 years and his first ever blog post. A single paragraph of writing with a spelling mistake. Both the worst and best thing he’d ever done. Why? because he’d actually JFDI’d.
Here’s a couple of perfect examples from my life of why these two particular podcasts rang true for me.
1) I’ve been away from boxing for two months. I put this down to an injury but honestly it’s mostly because I was scared to go back too soon. I’m no fighter but I love boxing as a training program. Why was I so worried about going back? Pain and the possibility of more pain was the driving factor I believe. I’m back now and loving it, gutted because I’ve wasted 8 weeks. I’ve had three sessions in the last week and I’m seriously thinking about fighting again at the end of November. We’ll see how that pans out. JFDI put me back in the middle of something I love and I can’t thank it enough.
2) My wonderful wife is a pure JFDI’er. She gets an idea and JFDI’s. Today is a great example, she decided last night that we needed to decorate our sons room. I went boxing for an hour this morning, when I returned the room was empty and all of the wall paper was stripped. No thought on how it was going to get done, no plan for the design/layout of the room. She Just F*cking Did It, now it has to be finished before the start of the working week. If it was up to me there would have been planning, measuring, designing, measuring and designing again before I even thought about buying wall paper. Never mind emptying the room. Sh1t gets done when you JFDI.
This is one of the things I both love and the about her. Things get done, but because they have to not because I’m ready.
I’ve made mistakes in the past by holding off, out of fear of the unknown, knowing that inaction was slowly killing me. A compromise I should never have made and regret everyday, 12 months wasted where a JFDI mentality could have eliminated a lot of pain and generated some amazing results.
Please take some time to think back to a time when JFDI could have helped you. What things you are going to now go out and Just F*cking Do?
Let me know about your JFDI experiences, both good and bad. Also what you need to JFDI tomorrow to make your first personal disruption.
Contact me through the comments section below or via Twitter with questions, comments or suggestions for future blog posts and I hope to see you soon.
LeanintoDesign 