What's up my friend, it's Cory. 👋🏼

Welcome to the 4:3!

On the 4th of every month, I share 3 things worth your while, either in film or my personal learnings. Plus, enter to win a free movie ticket each month!

First up…

1. Can good advice also be bad advice?

Of course. Because good advice at the wrong time is bad advice to a specific person.

The advice, “just do it”, is not bad advice.

If this sounds painfully obvious to you, then you may or may not struggle with implementing the advice.

But for those of us who can paralyze ourselves by overthinking, we might feel defeated by the advice to simply “just do it.”

When we are deep in a hole we’ve dug ourselves into, being told to stop thinking, stop analyzing, and stop considering all the implications, can feel like telling us to stop being who we are—or it just feels impossible.

On the other hand, there comes a point where the planning, analyzing, and thinking through the possibilities is just an excuse for us not to act and take that next step.

2. Helpful truth for overthinkers

While it's often the case that what we actually need is to act, to go, to start doing something, sometimes, in order to be at a realistic place where we will just do it, what we actually need first is understanding.

When we dive deeper to find the root cause of our inaction, we find that understanding brings knowledge, knowledge brings clarity, and clarity brings focus.

For example, if making YouTube videos was the thing you’re overthinking, you may have thought the reason you haven’t done it yet is because you didn’t have a fleshed-out plan, but when you dove deeper, you found that the real reason was fear of rejection.

Maybe you’re afraid of saying something inaccurate and get called out on it, that’s an issue with receiving feedback.

Maybe you’re afraid of people not liking you, that’s an issue with self-confidence.

Maybe you’re afraid of getting stumped by perfectionism, that’s actually an issue with procrastination and finding what motivates you.

You first need to understand why you aren't just doing it. Then ask why to that answer, and why to that answer, until you realize the true reason you feel stuck.

3. You can do what you set out to do!

If you’re anything like me, as an analytical thinker, the easiest thing to do is to over-analyze, over-think, and ultimately spend more time thinking than doing anything!

“Just do it” is often good advice that we ought to adhere.

But remember, dive a little bit deeper to ask yourself honestly, "Ok, I'm noticing that I'm not taking the action I want. Why is that really? Am I afraid of something? Am I unclear on a particular step? How can I uncover more clarity on that?"

You'll get even further when you write down these questions and your answers. Writing will solidify thoughts and ideas.

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I hope you enjoyed this newsletter! Tell a friend and enter to win a free movie ticket (details below).

See you in the next 4:3!
Have a good weekend!