Without Action, Plans are Just Dreams
“I never worry about action, but only inaction” – Winston Churchill
Sometimes the best action is any step forward. Sometimes overthinking and stressing about the “what if’s”, the fear of the unknown and the insecurities about yourself are best quieted with just one stride ahead. Just start taking action and tell yourself “I’ll figure it out”, because once you’re in it, trust me you will figure it out.
It’s okay not to know everything, and even if you think you do know everything you really don’t and things are always changing so chances are by the time you think you’ve got everything planned out perfectly something has already changed or at least been altered. Planning is important but all too often one can get stymied in the planning, and you’ve got to understand that without action all plans, forethought and preparation are worthless, without action plans just become dreams. What good will your well laid plans be if they are not put to use and tested?
“You’ll never plow a field by turning it over in your mind” – Irish proverb
Once you get a little boost of energy to start the process do not waste it, jump on that energy and ride the wave, you may land on a rocky shore or you may surf gently onto land, but regardless you’ll be surfing and too focused on how to stand up, hold your balance and make maneuvers that there will no time for worry. Once you are moving and taking action your focus will be on the tasks at hand, not the imaginary ones in your head.
One personal example of this was my yoga teacher training. After I had signed up for training which was in Costa Rica I was thrilled, but when I started getting ready and planning everything out, doubt and fear crept into my mind. I was leaving my husband for three weeks, traveling to an impoverished country, navigating lay overs, trusting a yoga studio and teachers whom I had never met in person, where I would know no one and for what, to become a yoga teacher somehow even though I was working in the Environmental Lab industry? When I had received the required reading materials for the course I almost backed out right then. There was an anatomy and physiology book of yoga poses, something called the Yoga Sutra’s and a small book with all of these black and white pictures of respected yogi’s in poses I didn’t even know existed. I had only been practicing yoga on a regular basis for a year and mostly from DVD’s. There were so many moments, where I thought what the frack am I doing, how will this work out, and is any of this really worth it? Honestly, I needed my husband’s help packing my bag, yet I’m going to a foreign country on my own to learn how to teach yoga? The night before I left, there was no sleep, I tossed and turned and kept thinking I didn’t have to do this, and it was true I didn’t have to go, I could stay and just keep working at a job that I was good at, paid well and had benefits, but I went. Once I said goodbye to my husband and passed through security all of the worries faded away. Throughout the whole training there were difficult moments but I never really got worried about anything again because I was in the present moment I was in the process and when your mind is focused in the now there is no worry.
The only way to make your life how you’ve envisioned is to start taking action. Time spent picturing the future you want can be greatly motivating and can help clarify your direction but too much focus on the future can turn that positive motivating energy into sharp knives of anxiety and worry. Don’t worry and plan yourself into a paralyzed corner where you give the power over creating your future to whatever comes within your short reach. Start taking steps, lunges and leaps towards the future you desire, silence your inner worries with outward momentum.
Copyright 2020 Strength & Grace Life Coaching LLC