This post is also available in: Español (Spanish)
Let me initiate this post by quoting the great Leonardo Da Vinci, who said, “Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation … even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” In short, he meant we must take action in order to avoid the horrible consequences of inertia.
It sounds a little crazy to say that in the current busy era in which we live, we still let ourselves get lost in the dark hole of inaction, but it happens … a lot. The issue is that we think we’re taking action when we move our thumbs to scroll up and down and swim the social media waters. Well, I don’t want to be the party pooper, but watching motivational videos on IG is not precisely taking action. 🤷🏼♀️ Sorry!
Everything you want to accomplish will only happen if and when you act towards it. You can visualize all you want, and you can listen to and read all the motivational messages out there, but the only step that will put you on the track toward accomplishment is pure action.
Have you ever attended a motivational event or conference, like Tony Robbins or Eric Thomas? If you have, then you know what I mean when I say those events get people pumped up beyond belief. You leave the place with at least 20 ideas about how to better your life emotionally, financially, and … why not? … spiritually. You feel totally empowered, like you have no limits.
As soon as you get home, you’re all excited to share the things you learned with your loved ones about how in few months your life will be completely different. You grab a notebook and start writing down your master plan. The next day you wake up, and you can still feel the excitement of your new life ahead. You visualize, write plans, and buy books (well, at least us book lovers do). Your notebook looks beautiful with all the notes, the perfect plans, and the color-coded dreams.
However, a week later you don’t feel as excited. Reality is all around you. The bills are knocking at your door, waiting for you to pay them. Work gets a little heavier because you’re not in the future yet, so your bank account still doesn’t have a billion dollars in it. What?? How is that possible if you did your job? It was all perfect last week. You wrote down the plan. You even woke up earlier three days in a row to visualize your future life! What happened?
The short answer is inaction sank you. I know, I know. You are about to tell me that you did take action, and you even have a notebook full of plans you can show me to prove I’m wrong! I’m sorry for being the party pooper again, but prepare yourself before you read this next part because it’s going to hurt:
Writing a plan doesn’t count as taking action unless you start DOING things.
Ouch! I know! I’ve been there. This concept hurts a lot; especially when writing is what you love the most! I mean, I was totally convinced that writing out my divorce process was all I needed to do to convince people it’s possible to divorce smart, not hard. I had more than 20 posts already written when I realized I needed to take action if I wanted the posts to be shared somewhere. I visualized people reading my posts for weeks, but nothing happened.
When I left my fears behind and took action, my plans started moving forward a little. I bought the space for hosting my blog, and then I contacted someone to build it because I don’t have the knowledge or the patience to do those kinds of things. As I was moving ahead, taking little steps, I became more and more excited. Then, after I worked out many details and took lots of action, my blog was born! Action made it possible after I put my fears behind me, learned to trust God and myself, and did everything I needed to do. The written posts weren’t enough. You’re reading this, today, here in this space, because one day I took one step, and then I decided to keep moving.
If you have a plan, writing it down is great! If you have goals you want to accomplish, reading and watching things that motivate you is wonderful! I’m not saying you shouldn’t have the notebook and draw your dreams in it with beautiful colors. I’m simply letting you know that action is the only thing that will make those dreams a reality. When I say ‘action,’ I mean making the phone calls, searching for answers, saving the money, changing old habits that hold you back, leaving the relationship that isn’t working, learning the skills, looking for a new job if the one you have doesn’t fulfill you, building the web page, doing the workouts, etc. When I say ‘action,’ I mean you must do things that aren’t only in your mind, on the paper, and coming from your mouth.
Action is grabbing your goals and dreams by the horns and dominating them until you accomplish them, my friends. Plainly put, action is simply moving forward. The ideas in your head and in the notebook need to get out into the real world. Make them happen! You are more than able to do it. You just need to take action now!
Love,
Irene
