Much Ado About Something

Without further ado.

This is a useful expression.

It means no more foolish blabber. No fuss. Get on to the thing you are here to see. 

The phrase has been around since the 1300s. It first appeared in written form in Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing,” which he wrote about 1598.

You hear it when people introduce speakers, after sharing their bio or any introductory comments: “Without further ado, here’s the brilliant speaker.” 

It’s a demarcation point. The end of the clearing of the throat and getting ready to talk. It’s the “We are getting down to business.”

Do you ever wish you could stop some ado in your own life and get on to the thing you are here for?

It would be nice if we could call on the energy of this in our own lives when we need it. Say we are starting to spiral downward about something. Or we can feel ourselves getting amped up about a conflict, feeding into it more than diffusing it. It would be so nice if we could say, Without further ado, I am moving forward.

I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night or in the wee hours of the morning, and bam! Something pops into my mind, like, don't forget that before you went to bed, you were worried about X—you might want to pick up that worry again. Or don’t forget that you were upset with this person who said X about you. 

I try to will my brain: I am NOT going to think about that. Without further ado, I am going back to sleep. And sometimes it works. Sometimes I can let it go, and drift off.

What if we could do that more often? If we could just stop the ado and help ourselves move forward? Time does help with this. It’s a great ado-passer. As hours, days, or weeks pass, we often gain distance and perspective that help us let go of something we are fussing about. 

Rachael Jayne Groover, a dynamic coach, recommends when imagining something we might want that we use the expression this would be lovely. 

The dreaminess of this is full of possibility. It would be lovely if....

So, to use these two expressions together: Without further ado, I am moving forward. It would be lovely if...

And then we move into wherever we go from there. 

Where might you be creating more ado than you really need in your life? Where are you stirring your pot of ado, or feeding its fire? How might you remind yourself to instead think, What would be lovely here?

Any time I can tamper down my own ado and move on to the world of imagination, that is downright lovely.