062 | Learning vs. Doing

Lawyers have a tendency to overthink and want to research and analyze and consume more and more information to find the “right” answer.

We’re really good at learning, and sometimes we tell ourselves we’re making progress with all our research and information gathering, when really we’re trying to avoid taking action.

In this episode, we talk about why we tend to spend so much time learning and why learning is not as valuable as doing.

Lightly edited transcript appears after the show notes.

Topics Discussed

• examples of areas we tend to spend time learning instead of doing
• why we tend to spend so much time learning
• why learning is not as valuable as doing

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Resources mentioned

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Lightly Edited Transcript

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. I hope you’re doing well and having an amazing day. So I am excited to jump into today’s topic because I think it’s something that comes up a lot, especially with lawyers. We tend to overthink and want to research and analyze and do all the things. And so today we’re going to talk about learning versus doing. There is so much information available to us these days. You can look up just about anything you want to know, in a matter of seconds right we literally carry mini computers around in our pockets, which I often think about I back in the day learning math and teacher saying things like, Well you won’t always have calculators in your back pockets and now we actually do. But anyway, with so much information available to us it’s easy to get caught up in learning things right, there’s always another book or blog or podcast or course where you can consume more information and learn something new. Learning is great of course but learning is not as valuable as doing. And often we learn faster from doing so a really good example of this is speaking another language. I speak Spanish. I studied Spanish in school from the time I was eight, until I was 20 or 21, and I can easily give you verb conjugations for various regular and irregular verbs, and the Spanish translations for lots of English words. I understand a lot of Spanish especially if it’s written, if it’s spoken, if you slow it down for me I can also understand most of the time, I learned Spanish right I know the rules of the Spanish language. But I’m not fluent, because I haven’t practiced actually speaking on any consistent basis, like putting all the knowledge I have of the Spanish language together to communicate with another human being in real time. That’s a struggle at times, I can do it, you know, some responses come quickly and naturally probably the ones I’ve used most often, but others not so much, I have to think about which words to use and how to put the sentence together. Right I learned it, but I didn’t do it. Contrast that with someone who took far fewer Spanish classes than I did, but actually lived in a Spanish speaking country for a while, or even someone who did a study abroad program which I didn’t do. Those people may have learned some Spanish academically, like in a classroom, but they truly learned the language by doing, by getting out speaking the language with native speakers. The same is true for practicing law, you learned a lot about, you know various areas of law in law school, but you didn’t really know what you were doing, right. you didn’t really know how to practice law, once you started practicing, then you started learning how to actually do it, how to actually be a lawyer. You didn’t have the opportunity to apply what you had learned in law school, a lot of learning to be a lawyer is done on the job because it’s not something you can truly teach in a purely academic setting. You can learn concepts, but coming up against them time and time again in various situations with different facts and seeing how you know these factors lead you to resolving this matter one way but another matter might be resolved in a completely different way. Those situations are how you truly learn. And of course, when managing your money is the same thing. You can read the best books and listen to the best podcasts and learn all about the different ways of putting together a budget or different methods to pay off your debt or different investment strategies right, all the things, but until you actually apply that knowledge to your own finances, you’re not really doing anything right, what’s the point. You haven’t actually taken the things that you’ve learned and put them into practice, to make change in your own financial situation. I think we tend to spend more time learning rather than doing because it’s more comfortable. If I’m learning. I feel like I’m doing something. I don’t have to face the discomfort of putting what I’m learning into action right in the case of my Spanish and even legal practice learning in the classroom was comfortable, it felt safer. It was kind of easier, right. But then speaking in real time with other Spanish speakers is uncomfortable. The words and concepts that come up in real conversation are more varied than the, you know constraint lessons in a class, and putting together legal concepts and coming up with the best strategy to manage a case with real issues and real people and real things at stake is a lot less comfortable than learning concepts in a classroom. In the case of managing your money, reading a book, or listening to a podcast is easy and safe and comfortable, and it makes you think you’re doing something right. You think you’re making progress, but if you’re not actually putting the information into practice, you’re not. It may be uncomfortable to face the reality of your spending, or to face your debt balance or learn a new skill like investing, but that discomfort is where you grow, fear, doubt, uncertainty, failure, all these things we try to avoid by continuing to learn and not actually do anything, will always be there, people who achieve the things they want in life, feel those feelings, embrace the failure, right, but do it anyway. Doing is what brings about change. It’s how you make the progress you want to see towards your goals. So you can learn all the things and know what to do, but you won’t fully understand until you put it into practice. You won’t make progress without the action part. You won’t reach your goals, just by reading books and listening to podcasts and taking courses. You can accomplish your goals by doing the work. And once you actually start doing, you’ll likely fail along the way, right you make mistakes, but that’s all part of the learning process. And once you start doing things and making progress towards your goals, you’ll build confidence in your ability to actually achieve them, you’ll continue to take more action, and eventually, you learn to manage your spending or pay off your debt or build your investment portfolio or whatever your goal is. So where have you been learning more things, researching more gaining more knowledge thinking you need to know more information rather than putting the knowledge you already have into practice. I want you to think of one step you can take today to stop learning and start doing, and then go do that thing. And if your area is money. You’ve been listening to this podcast following financial people on Instagram reading all the books, but not doing anything with the information, this is your sign. I can help you move from research to action and make the progress you want to make. So just head to rho Thomas comm slash coaching, and let’s set up a call to talk about your current financial situation and where you’d like to be. Alright so that’s it for this week’s episode, come join me over on social media. I am most active on Instagram at I am rho Thomas and on LinkedIn. Take a second and subscribe to the show on whatever platform you’re listening on and leave a review. Both of those things help the show get seen by more people. Please also share this episode with a friend or two who you think could benefit from the information. And if you share on social media, don’t forget to tag me. Alright, friend. So as we close out, I pray that you will really look at the areas where you’re consuming more and more information, thinking you’re doing something. I pray that you will face your discomfort, fear, whatever emotion, and start putting the things you’re learning into practice to make the changes you want to see in your life. And as always, I pray that you continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve. Talk to you later.