Here’s the thing with doctors, or maybe it’s just me….

We love to analyze things and to overthink!

In the world of entrepreneurship and creativity, it’s good to analyze, but it’s better to act.

This was emphasized to me today by a colleague, Amy Fogelman, MD while discussing a new project I’m working on in the arenas of music and medicine.

I told her all the details:

1. I wasn’t crystal clear on the concept
2. I get uncomfortable in certain realms of content creation
3. I wasn’t sure how it would work exactly

I also shared how someone else was already doing the very thing I was ruminating over, and having success.

She simply said, “This is easy. I wouldn’t overthink this. Just do it. Simple.”

I felt as if someone came and threw a bucket of cold water on me.

It woke me up.

It challenged me to stop my old, confined way of thinking.

I was holding on to all of my perceived limitations to keep from doing the uncomfortable and the unfamiliar.

In reality, the task at hand wasn’t difficult at all, I had simply been telling myself that it was. All this time I could have had a finished project instead of an idea trapped inside my head, swirling around, looking for someone to bring it to life.

Admittedly, part of this is in my nature, but another part is learned.

As an anesthesiologist in training, I learned to check, double check, then triple check! Then check again.

I learned to think of every scenario where something could possibly go wrong and to prepare for the most important thing and down the line. While this is great for safety and patient care, it’s not so great when you want to make something that has never existed.

It’s been made clear to me that in entrepreneurship, checking is great, proof of concept is wonderful, but sometimes it’s ok to Just Do It!

Fellow physicians, I don’t have any lengthy, flowery message to give, except to say:

Get Unstuck and do the Wild Things that make you Afraid!

You’ll be glad that you did.

Now, I’m off to work on my one wild and crazy dream!