“The Only Impossible Journey is the One You Never Begin” - Tony Robbins
Getting Started
Many times, the biggest barrier preventing us from reaching our goals is simply taking the first step towards them. Countless dreams are never realized due to factors including procrastination, fears, doubts, laziness, etc. As Brian Tracy writes in his book Eat That Frog, “The hardest part of any important task is getting started on it in the first place.” Once we get over that initial hurdle, we tend to find a rhythm and surprise ourselves with what we are able to accomplish. It is also key to keep pushing forward once you’ve begun. If not, you’ll have to overcome that initial friction all over again. Let’s now explore some ways that can help us in taking this critical first step.
Combatting Fears
Many of the excuses we give ourselves for putting things off are not always what they appear to be. For example, the fears we have related to a particular action are often a false narrative and the actual outcome is never as bad as we imagine it to be. Remember the acronym for F.E.A.R., False Events Appearing Real. Don’t blow things out of proportion. A helpful tool to combat fear is to invert it and use it as a motivator instead of a suppressant. Rather than fearing what could happen if you do act, reframe your thinking to fear what will happen if you don’t act. Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s mindset encapsulates this perfectly. He says that “I fear living a life where I could have accomplished something, and I didn’t”. Imagine your dreams not coming true and use this fear to help motivate you toward action. When used correctly, fear can be an asset rather than a liability.
Stop Procrastinating
When deciding when to start a new task, we often tell ourselves a lie along the lines of “I’ll do it tomorrow” or “There will be time for that later”. Telling ourselves this allows us stay in our comfort zone and enforces the bad habit of postponing action. Remember the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln when he said, “you cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today”. Eventually everything you have been putting off will catch up to you. If you’re a student, this may be a project with a deadline which you no longer have time to meet. For life in general, one day in the future you may realize the window of opportunity to act on your dreams has passed you by. The time to act is now, don’t listen to the stories we tell ourselves that keep us in our comfort zone.
The Cost of Inaction
Another quote that resonates with me is “The cost of inaction is the status quo”, which I saw on a post by Farnam Street. Nothing will change unless you do. Anything you want to accomplish in life you have to take action towards. Otherwise, you will wake up one day in the future in the same place you are today, pondering on all your wasted potential. If you are content with where you are in life then that is ok, but if you have dreams and aspirations, go out and seize them. As Sahil Bloom puts it, “the regret from inaction is always more painful than regret from action.” Take a chance, experience something new you’ve always wanted to do, otherwise you will always be living in the world of “what if”. What if I had done this? What if I had done that? Don’t anguish on what could have been. The only way to get closure is to experience it for yourself. What if it turns out greater than you can possibly imagine? That’s the “what if” you want to be thinking. Take the leap, you won’t regret it, or at least not as much as if you didn’t try at all.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading! This was my first content related blogpost. Fittingly, I chose the topic to be the importance of taking action. Starting this weekly newsletter is an example of how I’m taking action in my own life. I’d wanted to do this for some time now and I finally decided to go for it. So far, so good.
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Thanks,
Thomas