Nike, 1988. Three words, an imperative, and no object — it does not say what to do. The sentence assumes the deliberation has gone on too long and supplies the only missing ingredient.
Ready, aim, fire
The correct sequence exists in English and is used mainly to mock people who follow it too literally. Analysis paralysis names the failure state, paralysis by analysis is the older form, and both treat thinking as a thing that can go on too long and become a disease.
Action items
The American meeting produces action items, and a meeting that produces none is described as having gone nowhere. Not conclusions, not understandings, not positions. Items — countable, assigned, with a name next to each.
Bias toward action
Named as a virtue and used in hiring and promotion. Amazon lists it among its leadership principles: speed matters in business, and many decisions are reversible and do not need extensive study. The word bias is chosen deliberately — it concedes that the tendency is not neutral, and recommends it anyway.
Get the ball rolling
Along with hit the ground running, let’s get moving, time to pull the trigger, let’s make it happen. Five ordinary American phrases, all about starting, all impatient. There is no equally common family of phrases for pausing to think further.
Executive
The American word for a senior manager comes from execute — to carry out. Not director, not leader, not chief. The person is named after the act of doing.
The stand-up
The daily stand-up exists so that nobody sits down, because sitting down lengthens the meeting. The furniture is arranged to prevent deliberation.
Paralysis
Analysis paralysis. Overthinking it. Navel-gazing. Spinning your wheels. Stuck in the weeds. American English has an unusually large vocabulary for the failure of thinking too long, and no comparable vocabulary for the failure of acting too soon. The second failure is described, when it happens, in ordinary words.
Doer
An American compliment with no real equivalent elsewhere. She’s a doer. He’s a real doer. The praise is not for judgment, knowledge or care. It is for the propensity to begin.
The 80 percent solution
American military and business usage: a good plan executed now beats a perfect plan executed later. The claim is not that 80 percent is acceptable, but that the remaining 20 percent costs more in delay than it returns in quality.