How To Take Action

There are to do lists that never get completed. Tasks that never get started. Glorious opportunities that never come to fruition. And, lives that are lived unfulfilled. All for one simple reason. Someone, somewhere, for some reason, didn't take action. There are a multitude of reasons why people don't take action, but the biggest action killer, is fear. Fear can take many guises, and forms for different people. You could be afraid of being told "no", fear of being wrong, fear of failing, fear of not living up to yours or someone elses expectations, or fear of rejection.

They can be residual effects from dramatic events that have transpired in your past. I still remember an event that occurred to me in kindergarten. It was one of our first days, and we we're all doing a simple task. After completing it, I quickly realized I had done it incorrectly based on what my teacher showed us. She then started coming around the room to check on everyone's work. With the best of intentions I'm sure, as she was likely just checking to see if we needed any help. I was mortified. I knew I had done the work horribly wrong, and thought I was going to be in big big trouble. I don't really remember how the situation ended, just me feelings leading up to it. I'm sure the conclusion couldn't have been that bad, since I did manage to get through kindergarten.

The point I'm trying to illustrate here, is that many times fears are just imaginary thoughts existing only in our minds. Not always, but quite often our little fears are based on a non existent reality. Created only by our own imagination. That's not meant to dismiss them as trivial, as fears can become quite strong and quite overwhelming if we allow them to go unchecked. The good news is, that if we create this fear in our mind, there's no reason why we can't also destroy it. It's simply a matter of having a process for doing just that. One, that works well for me, is writing. Writing this very article is a tactic I'm using for overcoming a very unproductive day. And it's working.

Simply by virtue of doing some reading and research into my own motivations I've become more informed about my fears. By writing about them, and intertwining personal events for my life I'm able to better understand and overcome that obstacles in my path. For others, talking with friends and family can be another strategy for overcoming fears. There's nothing like exposing your fear to the light of day through discussion, to make it seem insignificant and beatable. Further empathetic feedback from friends is sure to help you win your battle.