Take Action
Do What You Want and What You Need
Take Action
Nothing will happen to you if you don’t do something. That’s an effortless and obvious statement, but the hardest for those who struggle with taking action.
Our inaction often is our worst enemy. Suppose you’re like me; sometimes, I wait for the right “motivation” before acting on an endeavor. Sometimes it’s simple paralysis by analysis—I’ll analyze a situation or purchase from every angle imaginable before taking action. Other times I practice patience before jumping to a decision.
Though it is wise to count our costs and practice patience for proper self-discipline, cloaking our inaction under the guise of “patience” might be constraining us to mediocrity or holding us back from enjoying the wonders of this fantastic world.
Here’s a personal example: A few years into our marriage, my wife and I wanted to do something for a vacation, but we couldn’t decide. We knew we wanted to travel, but as the two youngest children of our respective families, anything too far from “normal” seemed risky. However, spending week after week in our hometown was suffocating us, and we were taking it out on one another.
One spring afternoon, while my wife was sleeping off her night shift, I finally had enough. I whipped out the credit card and purchased a vacation. At the time, it was the most money I’d ever spent on personal pleasure, but it was affordable. When my wife woke up, and I told her what I did, both of us were overjoyed, and we felt like we could breathe again. This is not to say that vacations can fix all problems. But for us, a break in the monotony of our everyday routines was a balm to help us get to know one another differently in a different setting. Now, several years later, we’ve taken a trip every year since then (except for Covid 2020).
The hesitancy and temptation to give into inaction still creep in. But today I am writing this from Italy, on a train from Venice to Florence. And across several days, we’ll be in Rome and the Amalfi Coast (primarily thanks to my wife’s intricate actionable steps of researching, planning, and booking).
Yes, this is a slight flex, but it certainly comes with sacrifices. And sacrifices are what paralyzes most of us. We know that if we decide something, we can’t do everything else (in economics, we call this opportunity cost). So, being able to travel consistently means we don’t have any kids or pets yet. We also don’t live outside our means typically, so we can’t get the fancier versions of vehicles or clothes we’d like to have. These are first-world sacrifices, but sacrifices nonetheless. So don’t give in to the false idea that you can’t do anything because you’ll have to sacrifice something. Make the sacrifices. You are finite and unable to do everything. Life is a journey and an adventure-filled cascade of mistakes and learning. You’ll grow and be better equipped to serve the people around you.
There’s always going to be an excuse available not to do something you want or need to do. But don’t let those get in the way of what you can do in light of those excuses—take action.