Last week my email suggested you should write down the major concerns potential clients often express about working with you, and then identify stories and examples you can weave into your presentations, blogs and emails to obliterate the concern before it becomes a real one.

So after reading that email you could have done one of three things:

1 – You might have thought “nonsense, that won't work”. 

2. You might have thought “oh yeah, that does make a lot of sense. I agree with Ian on that one”.

3. You might have thought “oh yeah, that does make a lot of sense. I agree with Ian on that one. And I'm going to do something about it.”

And then you either took action straight away, or maybe over the next few days. But basically, if you took option 3 then by today you'd have your list of concerns and stories created already.

So which did you do?

Option 3 is great of course. You've read something that made sense and you've taken action to implement it.

Option 1 isn't a particular problem. Not everything I say clicks with everyone (though that particular tip really does work!).

It's option 2 that's the worrying one. Because without action, there are no results.

Now, of course, you can't realistically take action on every suggestion I make that you think makes sense. You have to prioritise. And I'm sure you get tips and advice from other people too.

But think about what your ratio of learning to doing is. How much of your time do you spend reading emails, blog posts and books or browsing social media or watching videos to learn new ideas? And how much time do you spend implementing the new ideas you've learned?

Common sense says it should take much longer to implement an idea than learn it. But I know when I look at my learning to doing ratio it's rather out of kilter. Maybe you're the same.

I enjoy learning new things. There's a joy to new connections being formed in the brain. And learning doesn't involve the risk of failure.

But learning alone doesn't pay the bills. Some doing is needed too.

So every now and then I think it pays to reflect on your learning:doing ration and perhaps adjust your plans a bit.