It is easy to excuse ourselves from taking risk by insisting that we need to do more research.
Research is important.
Good information and reliable intelligence are both essential for success.
After all, we cannot expect to achieve our goals if we have not done our due diligence before taking action.
However, acquiring more and more good information without actually using any of it is just another means of procrastination.
In the end, information and intelligence are only as good as the action we take because of them.
We should keep this in mind as we prepare to do any kind of research.
Before we begin gathering and studying any kind of information on a subject we hope to eventually take action on, we should take a moment to consider at what point we will have enough information from which to act.
We need a stopgap.
We need to know when enough is going to be enough.
We need to decide when, if we are not really making any progress, we should get off the proverbial pot and do something.
This means making a decision early on in the process to remove our excuses for inaction before we even make them.
Excuses love to masquerade as good intentions.
Our job, then, is to not allow ourselves to be fooled by ourselves.