I think we can sometimes spend so much time plotting our next move that we forget to move at all.

Other times we set off without thinking, and while we might end up regretting our last move, I know my own tendency is to always kick myself for doing nothing instead of something.

Sometimes we think we’re motivated by good intentions, and we tell ourself that once we become more this, more that, better in this area or that area that we’ll be ready to tackle something. More versed on a topic, more articulate, maybe a bit thinner, perhaps more tan, more funny or witty, more outgoing. In reality, a lot of those things are just excuses and time sucks which only serve to delay the inevitable — the inevitable being the day that you finally do whatever it is you’ve been promising yourself, or the day that you forget entirely about doing that thing that once upon a time fueled your waking and sleeping hours…at which point we subsequently spend the rest of our lives regretting our lack of action.

The best is when you finally “do,” and you didn’t lose a few pounds or get that golden glow in order to achieve it. Suddenly you can do anything; you feel invincible.

I can get so wrapped up in the analysis paralysis thing that you’d think it was a favorite pastime of mine. Some days I find it nothing short of a miracle that I’ve managed to blog up for practically a full year, and I wonder why I didn’t overthink its early days and miss a post here or there. In truth, I did — overthink things, that is. On day one, I set up the autopost feature here on Posterous, wrote something and clicked “publish,” only to break out into a cold sweat for fear of criticism, judgment and feeling exposed. But there were no comments — at least not that I was aware of. After that, I didn’t care. “It is what it is,” I thought, and I vowed to do it for me. If someone didn’t like it (and bothered to say so), that’s more their issue than mine.

So I carried on. And on.

And on some more.

The critical side of me only has a few favorite posts out of the few hundred on here, but there might be others that resonate with certain people more than me, thus they make their way into the favorite bucket, as well. But favorites aren’t really the point. The point is merely about action. I wish I could take more of it in my life — also regarding other writing projects, but maybe I’ll find it in a few days once my full year is up. Or maybe I won’t. It’s really wide open.

Then again, it’s not. I enrolled in a writing program about six years ago, and the instructors liked to say that the secret to writing is writing. Really? Great, glad I paid money if simply writing is all it takes. But seriously, I learned a few things here and there, yet mostly I learned how to shut myself up and just do something. Staring at a blank screen won’t get you over a hurdle, but typing words will. They may be terrible, but that’s what the backspace and delete buttons are for — you can have a do-over, primarily because you bothered to “do” in the first place. No doing, no do-over.

Tonight I am thankful for knowing that any move is a good move. It beats inaction, it beats wondering and it beats seeing someone else come along and do something incredibly similar to what you had in your head all along. I’ve had that very thing happen, and I kick myself every time, knowing that I could’ve done it a little better — had I only tried in the first place. Here’s to a new year just around the corner, and hopefully a new year full of trying, of action and of good moves.