The Overwhelmed Entrepreneur: Reality Check Method for Women in Business | Productivity & Time Management Tips

222: Good at Planning, Bad at Execution? How to Finally Start Doing What You Plan

• Cindy Gordon - Productivity and Business Coach for Female Entrepreneurs • Season 4 • Episode 222

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Good at Planning, Bad at Execution? How to Finally Start Doing What You Plan

Are you good at planning but terrible at execution? This episode is for entrepreneurs who create amazing plans but struggle to take action on them. Host Cindy Gordon, Reality Check Method coach for female entrepreneurs, reveals why your brain loves planning more than doing and shares the exact framework to break the planning trap.

In this episode, you'll discover:

  • Why planning gives your brain the same reward as actually accomplishing goals (and why this keeps you stuck)
  • How to reality check whether you're planning to make progress or planning to avoid action
  • The minimum viable plan approach that gets you from idea to execution fast
  • Why imperfect action always beats perfect inaction in business

Perfect for: Female entrepreneurs and small business owners who are always planning but never doing, especially those struggling with perfectionism and analysis paralysis.

Episode Highlights: "A mediocre plan that gets executed will always beat a perfect plan that stays on paper." "You can't plan your way out of uncertainty. You can only act your way through it." "Your business doesn't exist in your planning documents. It exists in the real world."

Stop planning your way to perfection and start executing your way to success. Get Cindy's Reality Check Method at ExclusivelyCindy.com and follow @exclusivelycindy for daily entrepreneurial reality checks.

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Connect with Cindy Gordon - Reality Check Method Coach for Overwhelmed Entrepreneurs:

Here's a scenario. I bet you'll recognize. You have an amazing business idea. You research the market. You create detailed spreadsheets, you outline your launch strategy, you design perfect brand colors and plan every single step. Six months later, you're still planning and your competitor just launched the same idea that you've been perfecting. Hi, I'm Cindy Gordon, a self-made entrepreneur, busy mom and reality check method coach for female entrepreneurs. I've built and sold multiple digital businesses, and I have watched countless brilliant women get stuck in what I call the planning trap, where you're so good at planning that you never actually execute. And today I am sharing the mindset shift that helped me stop over planning. Start taking action on what actually matters. If you want more tips and tricks, just like this one, join my weekly newsletter where over 1400 other entrepreneurs use it to stay motivated and on track. So get on my email list. The link is in the show notes. If you're good at planning, but terrible at execution, you are definitely not alone. This is one of the most common challenges that my clients face. They're incredible at research strategy and creating beautiful plans, but when it comes time to actually do the work, they freeze. And here's what's making this so frustrating for entrepreneurs. Planning feels productive. You're working on your business, you're making decisions, you're moving forward. Except you're really not. You're actually moving in circles. The planning becomes a sophisticated form of procrastination that tricks you into thinking that you're being productive when you're actually avoiding the real work. The truth is, you are always planning and never doing your business. Just stay stuck in your head in instead of becoming a reality and while you're perfecting your plan, someone else. Started with a good enough plan and they are already serving your ideal customers. So here's a fascinating fact about how our brains work. Planning gives us the same dopamine hit as actually accomplishing something. Your brain literally rewards you for making plans the same way it rewards you for taking action. So you get that satisfaction of progress without the risk of failure that becomes the real execution. Plus, when you are in planning mode, you have complete control. You make everything perfect on paper, but the execution. That's the messy part. That's where you discover that your plan wasn't perfect. That's where customers react differently than you expected. That's where real life happens. For many entrepreneurs, especially those of us, with perfectionist tendencies, planning becomes a safe place to live. You get to feel productive without risking failure. Here's a little reality check for you. A mediocre plan that gets executed will always beat a perfect plan that stays on paper. Just think about it. Okay, so here's how to break the planning trap using my reality check method. First reality. Check your planning addiction. Yes. It's a real thing. Ask yourself, am I planning to make progress or am I planning to avoid taking action? Be brutally honest with yourself. If you've been planning the same project for more than a month, you are procrastinating, not strategizing. Next, identify your minimum viable plan. What's the absolute smallest version of your idea that you could launch or test? Not the perfect version, the version that would give you real feedback from real people. This is your execution starting point. Then start planning a deadline. Give yourself a specific date. When the planning stops and the doing starts, mark it on your calendar. Tell someone about it. Make it real, because without a deadline, planning expands to fill whatever time you give it. Now, here's how to put this into practice today. When resistance shows up, and it will remind yourself that imperfect action beats perfect inaction every single time. Your first version doesn't need to be your final version. In fact, it shouldn't be. Build this into your existing routine by creating action days where planning is completely off limits. These are days where you only execute on the plans that you've made. No researching, no strategizing, no optimizing. Just doing the most common obstacle. Fear that you haven't planned enough, but here's what I've learned from building multiple businesses. You can't plan your way out of uncertainty. You can only act your way through it. The market will teach you the things that no amount of planning ever could to maintain momentum, celebrate execution over planning. Stop rewarding yourself for creating another spreadsheet and start celebrating every imperfect action you take because that's what actually moves your business forward. Here's what I want you to remember about today. Your business doesn't exist in your planning documents. It exists in the real world with real customers solving real problems, and the only way to get it from your head to reality is through action. Sometimes you just need to reality check whether you're actually moving forward or just feeling busy and moving in circles. Stop planning your way to perfection and start executing your way to success. This action over planning approach is exactly what I teach entrepreneurs in my one-to-one coaching. And Growth Collective Mastermind group. You can find me@exclusivelycindy.com, and you can also find me on Instagram at exclusively Cindy for daily doses of entrepreneurial reality checks. Your action step for today is to pick one thing that you've been planning and take the smallest possible action on it before you go to bed tonight. Not perfect action. Just action. Because done is better than perfect and perfect is the enemy of progress. Now go make it happen. And remember, you've got

Speaker:

Thanks for spending these few minutes with me today. Remember, overwhelm isn't permanent. It's simply your brain's way of saying pause and take a little reality check. If this was helpful, you'll love my weekly email tips where I share the systems that keep me and hundreds of other entrepreneurs on Track Link in the show notes. If you got value in today's episode, please share it with another entrepreneur who needs that reminder. If you're loving the show, I'd be so grateful if you could leave me a quick review. It helps other overwhelmed entrepreneurs find us. Make sure you hit subscribe so you never miss your weekly dose of clarity. For more resources and to connect with me, visit exclusively cindy.com. Until next time, remember you've got this.