Self-Sabotaged by Research

By Karyn Greenstreet

A woman in my MasterMind group posed a question today: why did she spend all her time doing research and never actually go on with "doing" the thing she was researching? She loved looking up information, finding resources, interviewing people, gathering facts. But taking these facts and applying them to her business seemed to always be put on the back burner.

It's called "analysis paralysis". The idea is this: if I could just gather this information, if I could just find this fact, if I could make this list a bit longer -- you get the drift.

The cause is simple: it's easier for many people to research than to "do" because gathering research is often a successful task, while acting on the research is fraught with the possibility of failure, stress, or pressure. So we stay in the research mode because it's safe and we get a lot of positive feelings about having uncovered the information we need.

Don't get me wrong: research is vital. I've seen many businesses fail to thrive because they haven't done the marketing research necessary to see if people WANT TO BUY the service or product they want to sell. The key, as always, is balance. When you find yourself doing more and more research, then you can bet you're procrastinating on the "doing" side of things. You have two choices:

Try to figure out why you're not doing the work, or
Just do the work.

Either choice is valid, but guess what? Choice 1 is still "research!"

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Karyn Greenstreet is a Self Employment expert and small business coach. She shares tips, techniques and strategies with self-employed people to boost clarity and focus, create sustainable motivation, and increase sales and profits. Visit her website at www.PassionForBusiness.com