Of course not. We know that sometimes doing nothing is the right way to go. Like when we’re tired or burned out. We need time to literally do nothing.

We also know that creativity stems, not from constant busyness, but the opposite: from boredom.

On the other hand, there are many ways in which doing nothing is the norm. So doing something, anything seems better. And in terms of progress, it usually is. But not always.

The problem with the do something/do nothing debate is that this isn’t the only axis at play. There’s usually a second axis: perfection/incompetence.

If doing something really were all it took, then we’d often be fine to do anything. We wouldn’t care what. Because then something would always be better than nothing.

But that’s not usually enough. What often stops us, is that we need to get it “right” or else we will “screw it up”.

This second axis drives us to fear one extreme or the other. Which often drives us to prefer nothing. Our brains process the challenge as leading inevitably toward failure. Either by falling short of perfection or being proven incompetent.

In other words, our action (doing something) is almost never stopped by a desire to actually do nothing. We most often do nothing to avoid doing things “wrong”. Or because we have outsized expectations.

Thankfully, most of the problems facing us don’t need perfect solutions. And they don’t need just any solution. But there are many solutions for the multitudinous concerns, and for so many of them, what’s missing is the boldness to simply get up and do something.