Clients often ask me if they should think more about a particular problem or if they should spring into action.

The short answer is: it depends.

Take, for example, learning how to play a guitar.

In the first six months, you’re very careful about where to place your fingers all the time. You’re constantly aware of where each finger should go, and you’re thinking faster than your fingers can move.

However, if you stick with it and push through the plateau—the difficult part of learning—you eventually get to a point where you’re actually good at it. There’s a transition where your fingers start moving faster than you can think.

Musicians and athletes often call this “muscle memory.” It’s as if your muscles know where to go, but your brain can’t keep up.

The truth is, it’s still your brain doing it, but your conscious mind can’t process the movements fast enough.

This reveals a kind of terrifying truth: your knowledge, the instructions, and decisions about where to place your fingers aren’t actually conscious anymore. There’s a part of your brain making those decisions, while your thoughts are lagging behind.

Ever tried playing a guitar solo?

You can’t consciously think about every note in real time.

You can’t go, “That one, then that one, then that one…” It’s too fast. You just watch your hands, almost in an out-of-body experience, as they do their thing.

I’ve noticed the same with dancing.

Once you reach an intermediate or advanced level, if you think too much about your movements, it actually throws you off.

You get out of sync, and you overthink your moves.

However, if you just listen to the music and let go, you dance naturally, and all the moves come to you. It’s like you get out of your own way.

When you try to consciously think about dancing, you actually end up doing worse.

To dive deeper into this topic, check out the original video here: