Taking Actions That Matter The Most!

The essential question is not, "How busy are you?" but "What are you busy at?" - Oprah Winfrey

It is easy to trick ourselves into believing that we’re working hard on our goals, while simultaneously avoiding taking action on the things that count. We find it easy to plan, prepare and dream about the day when our goals come to fruition, but maybe not so easy to actually take action and move toward them.

In order to create real results in our lives, we need to take focused, consistent action. Yes, there will always be little things that need to be done too, but those should be secondary to the actions that get results.

Taking action is scary; let’s not kid ourselves on that point. We need to have the courage to face possible rejection, ridicule or even worse – poor results. We need to be willing to face the possibility of failure, which is often our worst fear. What if we take action and nothing happens?

What if our results are terrible? What if people laugh at us, or we find out we don’t have what it takes to succeed? These fears are often enough to shove us into a false sense of focus. We promise ourselves that we’ll take action “someday” but in the meantime we’ve got all this other stuff that needs to be done first. We’ve got to plan and prepare, then plan and prepare some more.

In the meantime, we keep dreaming of that great day when our goals will be realized, not acknowledging that they won’t EVER be realized unless we get off our butts and do something to make them happen.

Today, be willing to do that which others won’t do. Work hard at the right actions to create the results you want. Be willing to face your fears and push through any self-doubt you have.

If the results you get from these initial actions aren’t great, keep doing them anyway! See if you can refine any steps and then do them better next time.

It is only through taking action that you will be able to master whatever you’re doing. Thinking about it is a good first step, but it cannot be the final one.

Taking The Right Meaningful Action

Now that it's all over, what did you really do yesterday that's worth mentioning? - Coleman Cox

How easy it is to procrastinate on the things we really want to do. “Tomorrow” is always more attractive because we envision ourselves better able to conquer our fears, overcome challenges, and develop the motivation we need to move forward.

We don’t want to do these things now because we trick ourselves into believing that we don’t yet have the courage, time, money, experience or resources that will make it feasible.

However, the problem occurs when tomorrow comes and we find ourselves still feeling intimidated, fearful, or hesitant to take action. Rather than pushing through feelings of resistance and taking action anyway, we find it easier to refine our plans, visualize our success, do further research – anything except leave our comfort zones and take action.

If we allow ourselves to be stuck in a cycle like this for too long, eventually we reach a point where we are almost paralyzed by fear. We want to move forward and we know how important it is to break the hypnotic spell that holds us captive, but it seems impossible to do so.

The longer we stay locked into a cycle of inaction, the more effort we will need to break out of it. As time goes on, we find ourselves looking at what we’ve (not) created in our lives, feeling regretful about all the missed opportunities we could have taken advantage of, but didn’t. We look at our level of success, our living conditions, the state of our physical bodies, and we feel shameful about squandering the gifts and talents we have. We know darn well we could do better, but we don’t.

Do yourself a favor: take action NOW. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Don’t let your dreams die a slow, neglected death. Don’t fool yourself into believing that you have all the time in the world.

Don’t let another day go by that you will later look back at what you didn’t do with regret. If you begin by taking even small steps forward, taking action on even the tiniest of aspirations, you will gain confidence.

Before long, you’ll grow to love the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction you get from moving forward. Then you will be able to look back at each “yesterday” with a feeling of pride about what you’ve been able to accomplish.