Bias for action is a superpower

Waiting for perfect market conditions to launch your startup, agency, or creative business is like waiting for every traffic light to turn green before you start driving. Spoiler: It’ll never happen.

I can attest that building a business is not for the faint of heart. One of the hardest lessons to learn is that you need to find a way to move forward, even when fear, doubt, and uncertainty are riding shotgun. You need to get comfortable making choices, even when uncomfortable. But above all else, you need to cultivate a bias for action. So how do you do that? I’d love to share few things that worked for me.

Think differently about action

First, you need to think about bias for action differently—this is not just about “building a new habit.” While habits can be useful and helpful, cultivating a bias for action requires a different mindset. It’s about training your mind and body to react to uncertainty.

Instead of getting stuck overthinking, you train yourself to move first, trusting that you’ll figure it out as you go. A bias for action mindset is about stepping in, even if you don’t have all the answers, and staying adaptable as you trust the process.

Practical ways to build a bias to action

Building a bias for action can make people squeamish. Here are some practical ways you can start building that action-oriented mindset. Oh, and if it isn’t obvious, these suggestions are far from exhaustive—but they’re a solid starting point for anyone wanting to make movement their default.

1. Change your default question

When faced with an opportunity, most people think, “Why should I do this?” Instead, ask yourself, “Why shouldn’t I?” Flipping the question encourages motion by reframing the default position to action.

2. Lower the stakes

One of the reasons people get stuck is because they see every decision as high stakes. In business, you’ll make a million decisions—trust me—they’re not all high stakes. Start treating some decisions as experiments. By lowering the perceived cost of failure, you make it easier to move. If you can treat actions as tests (something from which you’ll learn regardless of the outcome), you’ll be more willing to start.

3. Imperfect action almost always beats inaction

Create a practice of doing things before you feel ready. Action doesn’t need to be perfect—it just needs to happen. By repeatedly embracing imperfect starts, you reduce the mental friction that often stops you.

4. Use deadlines to force movement

I give this advice the most to establish an action-oriented mindset: Set tight deadlines, even if they’re self-imposed. The idea isn’t to induce stress but to create urgency. Deadlines can act as artificial constraints that push you out of analysis paralysis and into action. A short deadline can transform a daunting project into a manageable, immediate challenge.

5. Reward action, not just success

Learn to celebrate the act of taking a step, regardless of whether it results in a win. By creating positive associations with movement itself, you reinforce the habit of action.

Designing an environment that encourages bias for action

These suggestions can help you get started, but making action your default response requires intentional work on your environment, too.

As you probably know, building a business is inherently messy—it requires quick pivots, experimentation, and embracing failure as part of growth. If your environment makes failure feel catastrophic, developing a bias for action becomes much harder.

If you want bias to action to become commonplace, surround yourself with people who value effort, even if it leads to mistakes. Being around those who cheer you on, even when things don’t go perfectly, reinforces that the act of taking action matters.

Normalize movement over perfection, and soon enough, action will feel like the only option that makes sense.

This doesn’t mean diving headfirst into everything without thinking. Start small. If you’re facing a big decision, look for the smallest possible step that moves you forward. Every small win adds up, building trust in your action-oriented instincts.

So go ahead:

• Email that person.
• Ship that idea, even if it’s not polished.
• Say yes to an opportunity before you’ve figured out all the details.

Every step strengthens the habit of action, and soon enough, it stops being a conscious effort—it just becomes who you are.