Experience is the child of thought, and thought is the child of action.

The sequence runs opposite to the one most people assume. You do not think your way to understanding and then act; you act, which gives you something to think about, and the thinking is what turns events into experience. Skip the first step and you are left with opinions rather than knowledge. Skip the second and you are left with years that taught you nothing.

If you have been analysing something for weeks, take one concrete action small enough to reverse and see what it produces. Then sit down afterwards and write what actually happened alongside what you expected. That second half is the part most people leave out.