Now Or Never: Why Your Next Action is Everything

Derek Sivers' guide to a purposeful life

Your next action is all you have.

The future isn’t real - it’s speculative fiction.

The past is done, extinct, kaput.

Your only real touchpoint with the universe lies in the actions you take *right now.*

It’s counterintuitive, isn’t it? We get so caught up in our futures and our pasts. What we should have done. Where we want to be. Where we aim to go. We forget that this is all a mirage, a hazy, amorphous wisp of smoke that dissipates around our hands the moment we try to grasp it.

For this week’s guest, the inimitable Derek Sivers, actions are the core unit of analysis. When evaluating virtually anything, we ought to ask, "How does this impact my actions?"

The beauty of the idea lies in its simplicity. Life becomes remarkably less complicated when you strip away all the noise and concentrate on the next step.

Here are six ways that Derek suggests we can orientate our lives around action.

I. You Are Your Actions

Think of something you want to do. That book you’ve been meaning to write. The language you’ve been planning to learn. The fitness routine you’ve been intending to start.

How long have you been toying with the idea? And what concrete steps have you taken towards achieving it? If the answer to the first question is “a while” and to the second is “none,” then the chances are you don’t desire that outcome as much as you think you do.

As Derek says, “no matter what you tell the world or tell yourself, your actions reveal your real values. Your actions show you what you actually want.”

The same principle applies to our character. Do you consider yourself a generous individual? When did you last perform a genuinely generous act? If the excuse is that you've been ‘too busy,’ you may need to reassess your self-perception.

Derek’s solution to the cognitive dissonance between actions and perception is characteristically simple. Either “stop lying to yourself, and admit your real priorities,” or “start doing what you say you want to do, and see if it’s really true.”

Taking action toward something means aligning yourself with that thing. Write every morning, and you are a writer. Start performing a generous act every day, and suddenly, you are generous.

What action can you take immediately that will bring you a step closer to being the person you want to be?

For more insights from Derek, see his articles Actions, not words, reveal our real values, Small actions change your self-identity, and Err on the side of action, to test theories.

II. Start Small

You don’t need funding. You don’t need a 100-page business plan. You don’t need a beautiful-looking website.

If you’ve got an idea you’re itching to introduce to the world, there will be a small step you can take immediately to start iterating on it.

Once you’ve taken that small step, “you’ll be ahead of the rest, because you actually started, while others are waiting for the finish line to magically appear at the starting line. Starting small puts 100% of your energy on actually solving real problems for real people. It gives you a stronger foundation to grow from. It eliminates the friction of big infrastructure and gets right to the point.”

Setting up something at the back end, e.g., registering a domain, is not starting small. Starting small is getting feedback from a *real, living, breathing person* on the simplest iteration of your idea.

This from Derek’s website is my favorite example:

“If you want to make a movie recommendation service, start by telling friends to call you for movie recommendations. When you find a movie your friends like, they buy you a drink. Keep track of what you recommended and how your friends liked it, and improve from there.”

Remember, until your idea is out in the world, everything else is noise.

For more from Derek, check out his article Start now. No funding needed.

III. Discard Useless Beliefs

It’s human nature to tell ourselves stories about the contingencies in our lives.

‘I won’t be happy until I’ve quit my job/got a promotion/had kids/moved house/got married.’

‘That break-up was/wasn’t my fault.’

‘I have no choice other than X.’

The trouble is, we don’t treat these stories as beliefs; we treat them as The Truth. They become fixed points in our lives, informing not just how we see the past but how we react to the present. Ultimately, these stories direct our future.

But that is all they are: stories. They are not immutable facts prescribed by the laws of nature. They are perceptions: products of societal pressure, our emotional baggage, our flawed memories, and our prepackaged humanOS.

Sometimes, these beliefs help us. They may inspire us to work harder, get stronger, or be kinder.

But other times, they get in our way. They cause us to defer happiness or harbor grudges.  

Derek’s solution is simple:

“Since almost nothing is absolutely indisputably true, you should choose beliefs and ideas that are useful to you now — that help you take the right actions.”

Identify which beliefs are holding you back. Let go of them and replace them with ones that make you take the desired action.

This topic will be the subject of Derek’s upcoming book, Useful Not True.

IV. Discard Useless Goals

We like to think that our goals are about improving the future. They’re not. The future is spectral, a mirage. It only exists in our imagination. All we have is the present.

Remember: our next action is our base unit of analysis. So, we should only maintain goals that change our actions in the present moment.

Derek explains the difference between a good and a bad goal here:

“A bad goal is foggy, vague, and distant. A great goal is so clear, specific, and close you can almost touch it. (This is crucial to keep you going.)

A bad goal makes you say, “I’m not sure how to start.” With a great goal, you know exactly what needs to be done next.

A bad goal makes you say, ‘Let me sleep on it.’ A great goal makes you say, ‘I can’t sleep! I was up until 2 a.m. doing this, then got up at 7 a.m. to do it some more.’”

What impact are your goals having on your actions? Discard the ones that aren’t helping you, and find better goals that enable you to start acting immediately.

For more from Derek on this topic, see his articles Detailed dreams blind you to new means, Why are you doing? and Goals shape the present, not the future.

V. Create, Don’t Consume

From a creative perspective, consumption is pointless unless there is an action on the other side.

It doesn’t matter how many TV shows, web articles, films, books, or emails we mainwire into our skulls. Unless we apply what we’ve consumed, all those inputs dissolve into the ether:

“People think that if they keep reading articles, browsing books, listening to talks, or meeting people, they’re going to suddenly get inspired. But constantly seeking inspiration is anti-inspiring. You have to pause the input and focus on your output.”

We get creative not by consuming but by, you guessed it, acting. Inspiration comes not from what comes in but from what comes out:

“Inspiration is not receiving information. Inspiration is applying what you’ve received.

For every bit of inspiration you take in, use it and amplify it by applying it to your work. Then you’ll finally feel the inspiration you’ve been looking for.”

Stop consuming, start creating,

For more from Derek on this topic, see Seeking inspiration?, You don’t need confidence, just contribution, and Smart Brand Marketing.

VI. Be Intentional

The most important action is the next one. So, you better damn well make sure it’s worth it:

“If you’re not saying “HELL YEAH!” about something, say no. When deciding whether to do something, if you feel anything less than “Wow! That would be amazing! Absolutely! Hell yeah!” — then say no.”

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For those of you who missed it, Part One of Derek’s conversation is available here. Tune in tomorrow, Thursday, 26 October, for Part Two.

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