The Value of Action

The ability to take action is critical to meeting a person’s goals in life.  If I had the goal of making more friends and I never leave my room, I wouldn’t be very efficient at meeting that goal, would I?  Taking action produces results.  Results give you the ability to modify your action to get better results.  

The desire for change or improvement means a change in the way you do something, do something new, or stopping yourself from doing something.  All of these cases require an action of some sort to achieve the result.  

It boils down to this – Do nothing, Change nothing.  

The value of taking action is how we change and grow as individuals.  Change inspires growth, growth inspires progression, and progression makes you a more advanced and developed individual.  You become a better you.  Think about it this way, what if you had never gone to school?  Had best friends?  Had a job?  Ran?  Walked? Jumped?  Spoken?  All of these actions gave way to growth in you as an individual.  Let’s say you decide to go for a run.  When you ran, you knew what it felt like to have the wind in your hair, to feel your legs push against the ground and propel you forward.  You felt your muscles contract and the breath quicken in your lungs.  Your heart accelerated.  If you ran further, you dealt with the pain.  You felt fire in your legs and pushed through it.  Eventually, you might have even felt a runner’s high.  All these experiences tied into the one action that you took.  You ran.  And all of these experience gave way to growth.  Your muscles broke down and rebuilt themselves anew.  You became slightly faster and stronger.  You could go a little bit further.  If you kept pursuing running, you could eventually run marathons.  Also, a plethora of side effects would take place.

You would have a stronger heart, and a stronger body.  You would experience less stress.  You would lose your excess body fat.  You would have more energy.  All of these things because of one action that you took.  You decided to run.  (I’m an avid runner myself ; )

This is the value of action.  Notice what kind of action it was.  It was simple.  To achieve your goal you had to do one thing. Run.  Yes, there are many things that would help you with this goal.  Such as special workout, a better diet, and a partner to help you along the way.  These things would help, but you would still get your desired result if you just ran.  

Along the way, you figure out what works best for you, and how to achieve the best results possible.  These things come after the fact of actually performing the act.  You can calibrate yourself along the way.  You get better and better at achieving the results that you desire.  The most important thing is to take action.

 

Thought vs. Action

Many of us (myself included) decide that the best way to go about things is to learn everything about something before we actually dive into it.  This makes us feel safer and keeps us in our comfort zones.  We gradually try to grasp concepts of things, and we try to expand our knowledge or growth in a subject bit by bit.  This is not  the way to go about learning.  Yet this is the action we take.  This is what we are taught all of our lives.  Our parents cautioned us to learn as much as we could about something before we did it.  Our high schools and colleges gave us books and lectures.  They made us regurgitate this knowledge on a test, and wham-o you have a degree.  

Out of all of those experiences, what did you actually learn?  You learned about abstract ideas or processes, but once you got out and got some real-world experience how much of it held true?  Sure, some if it probably did.  The very little that you actually remembered anyways.  But how much faster did you grow once you exposed yourself to it everyday?  When you actually took action?  You can’t learn how to run through a book.  You can’t learn how to play an instrument through a book.  Truth is, you can’t learn how to do much with a book on the subject.  Books help, and they should definitely supplement your real world experiences, but they should by no means be your only experience.  

I am convinced (and it has been made evident in my own life) that the best way to achieve growth in any area is actually delving into that area headfirst.  Really, give your time to focus in on that area for a couple weeks or however long it takes to get the results you want and then move on to a different area.  The intense, laser-like focus allows you to see exponential growth in any area.  Once you have achieved the level of growth that you desire, you can just put that area of your life on maintenance.  This all boils down to taking action to achieve.  

Have you met one of those people that always say they are going to do something, but never do?  Like “I’m going to get better grades” or “I’m going to get a promotion” or “I’m going to start my own business”, but then they never take action to achieve these goals.  There is always an excuse that they have.  “I’m too busy just right now, but really soon I will.”  Here is some news for those of you out there that have said this.  Soon is not now.  At the very least give yourself a deadline to achieve your results!  

I am sure that there is something else in your life that does not really need your attention, but you give it your time anyway.  Let’s name the big one.  TV.  Honestly, what have you learned from your TV that has really just changed your life, and made it that much better?  Your answer is probably “Not much. . .”  So why give it your time?  Yes, we all need to be entertained, and there are valuable lessons to be learned by watching TV or movie.  But wouldn’t you rather take that extra 2 to 3 or maybe even more hours a day back?  Do you realize that if you watch TV (movies included) for 2 hours a day that you will spend a month of your life in front of a television this year?  If you just cut that in half you would gain back an extra 2 weeks of your life to start that business, or go for that run, or to study for those grades, or get that promotion, or whatever you are trying to achieve.  

The point that I am trying to drive home is the fact that taking action is absolutely pivotal to your success in whatever endeavor you are pursuing.

 

The Importance of Real World-Experience

Real world experience always trumps book smarts.  Just because a book says that something should work a certain way does not mean that it will.  That book was written from that authors point of view, in that authors time period, with that authors experiences.  You may have to take a completely different route to get to the same place that they did.  Lots of people may agree that if you copy the actions of the person you are trying to emulate you will get the same results.  False.  No.  Wrong.  Each of us are individuals with unique experiences and backgrounds.  Just because your friend or mentor tried something and it worked does not mean it will work for you.  

That being said, it is important to take action and try things to see if they will work.  Just take the time to think and have a fairly good idea of where this action will take you.  This is why it is important to get real-world experience as soon as possible.  If you want to learn how to build something, actually go build it.  If you want to learn how to invest in stocks, go invest in stocks.  You will make mistakes, and you will fail miserably, but you will have gained valuable knowledge that could not have been gained any faster any other way.  That knowledge you will take with you into your next endeavor, and in time you will start succeeding and getting the results that you want.

Don’t rely just on your real-world experiences though.  Taking advice from others, reading books by experts, and watching the experts may save you some valuable time and mistakes.  Real world experiences should be supplemented by other sources to achieve your goal.

Did you notice anything about the last three paragraphs?  They all required action to get the results.  

 

I Just Don’t Have the Time!

Lame.  You have all the time in the world if you would just invest it wisely in what you actually want to get out of your life.  If you still think you don’t have the time, I have something for you

Media Fast.

What is a Media Fast?  A media fast is a 30 day event in which you cut off all media input as much as possible.  This sounds fairly extreme, but there are some exceptions.  You may watch movies IF they are positive and motivational, same for things that you read etc.  No news, barely any TV, no video games, nothing comes in unless it is positive.  

Now you may be thinking “But, how will I know what’s going on in the country?” or “What about my favorite TV show?”  Trust me, if it’s important the news will reach you.  Your friends will be talking about it, and you will hear it.  If it is really that important, the news will reach you, so don’t worry.

Going on this media fast and only putting positive ideas into your system serves a dual purpose.  First, it changes your mindset.  The first couple days of your fast you will probably experience some withdrawal from you usual media input.  Completely normal.  Just stick it out, and when you think you just have to watch some TV, or you start reasoning with yourself saying “I think this might be motivational. . .” go and invest that time in the things that you said you didn’t have time for.  Research that online business, get that promotion, spend time with your family, go out with friends, listen to motivational speakers, read motivational books, do something that will actually matter.  After a couple of weeks you may notice that you just generally feel better all around.  You are happier, healthier, and smiling more.  This mindset change takes place because of what you have put into your mind.  As they say “garbage in, garbage out.”  Invest time in yourself to give yourself this positive, I-can-do-it attitude and you won’t regret it.

Secondly, You will notice that you have a LOT more free time on your hands.  I know that when I did this a couple years ago, I just didn’t know what to do with my extra time.  Well, by now, you should now what to do with your extra time.  Do all of those things that you have been wanting to do, but just couldn’t seem to find the time to.  Don’t just sit around and slack off, take action!  Take this media fast (or mental fast as some may call it) 

After you get done, you will probably notice that you haven’t really missed the things that you thought that you would.  The same thing happened to me.  I don’t really miss watching all those TV shows and all of the other things.  Once I was done with my fast I put a couple things back into my life and refined what I would let in.  But it helped me a great deal get some goals accomplished that I had been struggling to find the time to find to get done, and it made me think about what I was actually putting into my mind and life.  After the fast I definitely put a filter up of what I will and won’t tolerate, because of all of the negative ramifications that certain things could have in my life.  The same will probably happen for you!

 

Take Action, NOW

If you have taken the time to read this article and absorb some if its ideas, do not just close this page and go on with your life.  Take a second and think of that one thing that you are wanting to grow in, or change, or start.  Got it?  Now go do it.  Think of at least one way that you could get a start on whatever you are wanting to work on, and actually get up and go do it right now.  Consider doing the mental media fast and see if you have a change in your mind and life for the better.  If you don’t, then go back to the way you have been living and move on with your life. 

But think about this.  You read this article because you wanted to learn how to exact change in your life.  Now, after all of the reading about change you have just done, you are going to go about things the exact same way that you were before?  The way that brought you to some sort of dissatisfaction with your life, so you went looking how to change it?  If that’s what you want, then go ahead and go back to living the way that is comfortable for you.  You just aren’t read for change yet.  Your desire to change is not great enough to take action, and that’s okay.  But, for those of you that are ready to take the next step, to learn, to grow, to accomplish, and to achieve; take some of these ideas to heart and start changing your life.  

Remember:  Do nothing, Change nothing.

 

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