Take Action NOW!!!

“I’ve heard of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But I’ve never heard of Someday.” – Reverend Ike

“People are always trying to put off until tomorrow what they could be doing today”. – Russell Simmons.

The previous two quotes were taken from Russell Simmons’ new book Do You! And I think they perfectly illustrate the focus of this writing which is to take action NOW!

So many people have great goals, dreams, and intentions but aren’t doing anything to fulfill them. “After my kids go to school…” “When my check comes in…” “When I get that job...” “When I hear from that client” “When I am in better shape…” “Someday I’ll get my nose done” “I’ve been thinking about doing…” The list goes on and on.

I think there are three main reasons why people don’t take the action they should to produce the results they would like: 1) Fear 2) Uncertainty 3) Ignorance & 4) Laziness. Let’s explore these four.

1. Fear

I think the most prevalent reason people don’t take action to realize their ideal life is simply do to fear. As Susan Jeffers, author of the bestselling book Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway likes to say, fear is simply “False Evidence Appearing REAL”. Many people allow FEAR “False Evidence Appearing REAL” to stop them before they even get into the game: “What if she says no to me asking her out?” “What if my manager doesn’t give me the raise?” “What if he doesn’t like me?” “What if I mess up on my speech?” “What if I fail my test?” Just imagine for a second if she did say YES! If your manager WOULD give you that raise, if you DID do great on your speech and you DO pass your test. The fact of the matter is that you won’t know unless you TRY!

Let’s look at FEAR again “False Evidence Appearing REAL”. Unless you are a fortune-teller, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. If you’re allowing fear to run you, then you’re looking at the future from a negative perspective. The reality is that you don’t know what’s going to happen. Things might turn out much better then you could have ever thought or planned. As Dr. Fleet of the Concept-Therapy Institute says in his book Rays of the Dawn: “Fear is the antithesis of faith. It is based on a lack of confidence or an apprehension of danger, unhappiness, doubt, anxiety, worry, dread, hatred, anger, horror, fright, shock, terror.”

“Fear is a destructive emotion. Anyone who suffers from it should know and comply with the laws governing fear:
1. Find out what it is that causes you to fear
2. Eliminate the fear through intelligent action
3. If it is not within your power to eliminate the fear, then consult someone who has a made a study of the human mind. Present your case to the doctor, or mental healer, who in turn will analyze this fear. Then, using your intelligence and willpower, eliminate the fear.
4. Do not fear anything needlessly. Analyze your fears in the light of truth, and you will find that there is, in reality, nothing worthy of being feared”

Let’s try an example of this. Let’s say you’re someone who has a fear of talking to women. You’re worried that when you talk to women they might reject you so instead of talking to them, you simply leave them alone. This fear is causing havoc with your life as you don’t have the proper relationships or the normal sex life you desire.

So, what can we do? First, “Find out what it is that causes you to fear”. In the previous case it would be talking to women. Second, “Eliminate the fear through intelligent action”. Intelligent action could be; signing up for a course on how to meet women, taking speech classes to get better at speaking, purchasing a book on the art of pick-up and/or seduction, practicing making small-talk with women you see while out, and having your friends introduce you to their women friends.

If your fear is so big that you can’t do any of those steps, then I would say you go to step 3 of the laws governing fear; “If it is not within your power to eliminate the fear, then consult someone who has a made a study of the human mind. Present your case to the doctor, or mental healer, who in turn will analyze this fear. Then, using your intelligence and willpower, eliminate the fear.” You can get the number of a good therapist or hypnotist and find out what the root cause of this fear is. Once you know it, the two of you can come up with a logical plan to eliminate it.

Lastly, “Do not fear anything needlessly. Analyze your fears in the light of truth, and you will find that there is, in reality, nothing worthy of being feared.” This quote is so true. You are one with the Divine. One with this great all-pervading power that rules, governs, and flows throughout the universe. What problem could be so big that you could not solve it? Apply some reason and faith to your problems and you’ll see that there really is nothing worthy of being feared. In fact, most of the time your problems are blessings in disguise. They’re showing you what areas you need to improve upon so that you could lead a better life.

2. Uncertainty

A lot of times there will be people who are willing to take action but often don’t know exactly what it is they should be doing. One of the easiest ways to get over this hurdle is to develop a strong image of what you would like to be doing. This image will give you the direction and motivation you need to get started. Also, a strong image will give you the drive and determination to see your image through to the end, even when bumps and hurdles come up along the way.

Two examples I like to use for this are: 1) Imagine if I gave you a magic wand and you were living your ideal life right now, what would you be doing? That simple question usually allows people to completely express themselves. Everyone on some level has an idea as to what they should be doing. This simple question releases any type of restrictions a person might have. For instance many people are not in their ideal jobs because they are busy doing something that they think they should be doing instead of something they want to do. This simple question allows them to really free themselves up to get to the core of what they want to do.

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2) I oftentimes tell people to write out: “I am so happy and grateful” and to keep writing whatever comes out for their ideal life. This natural process of writing allows their true desires to come out. It stops the conscious part of their mind from filtering out their true real desires that are right below the conscious surface.

In my opinion, developing a strong image is the first thing someone should do when they want to get into shape. By developing a STRONG image of what they would like to look and FEEL like, this image will give them the inspiration to go about creating their perfect body. Also, on those days when they might be feeling down or unmotivated, all they have to do is turn to their perfect image for motivation.

For people reading this who might be suffering from depression, a strong self-image is one of the best ways to start feeling good again. The image of a person’s perfect life will give the imager faith and hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. It will also give them a direction to head in which will take their negative energy that was once flowing destructively inward and have it flowing constructively outward.

3. Ignorance

Sometimes people know what they want to do but just aren’t sure how to do it. For instance let’s say you wanted to become really good at karate but have never done karate before. You could read a book on karate, attend a karate class or seminar, take a private one on one karate lesson, and study about the best karate fighters throughout history.

The same process is analogous to pretty much anything. Let’s say for instance you wanted to attend Harvard University. You could call and speak to an admissions counselor at Harvard, speak to your school’s admissions counselor about Harvard, spend a day walking around Harvard’s campus, check out various online resources regarding its application process, and much more. Within a very short time you would be extremely knowledgeable about Harvard and what steps you would need to take to get accepted into their university.

I would like to make a special note about taking action NOW. A lot of people fail to realize just how MANY resources are available to them. The world is really limitless with the number of available resources, many of which are FREE. If you are unemployed, there are tons of employment agencies that would like to get you a job and won’t charge you a thing for it. If you’re suffering from some type of mental illness, there are tons of therapists out there who would like to help you just for the sake of helping you. If you’re hungry, there are a variety of food-assistance programs that will help keep you fed. But none of these resources can reach you if you don’t take some type of action to let them. Sometimes it might be something as simple as calling up and registering for a free class or filling out a form for some type of government assistance.


4. Laziness

Of all the factors on this list, I think laziness is the most difficult to overcome. The reason being that lazy people often want others to do the work for them. As motivational speaker Jim Rohn likes to say “You can’t pay someone to do the push-ups for you”. If you want to get into shape you are going to have to exercise and/or eat right. If you want to graduate from college then you are going to have to take classes, study, and work hard. If you want to get a black belt in karate then you will have to practice and train, often times for years on end before you will receive it. The list goes on and on.

So how do you combat laziness? The answer is with a strong image. A strong enough image can force nearly anyone to get off their butt and begin taking action. It will motivate them to reach for heights they might never have thought were possible and will give them the fuel to keep going along the way. The only problem with lazy people is that many are too lazy to begin doing even that!!! They want someone else to solve their problems and to do their thinking for them. They would rather watch TV all day, play the lotto, drink, gamble, etc. rather than put in the necessary work to create their ideal life now.

If you’re reading this and there is some area in your life that you have been neglecting or been lazy about, develop a strong positive image of how you would like it to be. If you are a lazy student, see yourself getting all A's and your teachers congratulating you about your success. If you are overweight, see yourself in your new body and people telling you how great you look. If you’re broke, see yourself as being rich and driving your brand new car and living in your perfect house. Bombard your mind daily with these positive images until they become ingrained in your subconscious mind. As I said in my previous talks, over 90% of what you do is subconscious. You drive to work the same way every day, brush your teeth the same way every day, put your pants on the same way every day and so on. By impregnating your subconscious with these new images of your life, it will go to work on creating them for you. It’s like putting your mind on autopilot to create what you want.



Take Action NOW!!!!

I’ve found in my own experience that once you begin to take action, doors that you could have never even dreamt of will begin to open for you. The universe, being all-wise and intelligent, will see your desire to improve some aspect of your life and will reward you accordingly. With that said I would like to share a small humorous story about taking action now.

One day a man approaches Dr. Fleet and asks him how he could use the law of attraction to find his perfect job. Fleet tells the man to draft up a great resume, to make twenty or so copies of it, and to visualize every day that he is working in his perfect job. Some time goes by and one day the man approaches Fleet after a class and proceeds to tell him that the law of attraction doesn’t work, that he’s been sitting around visualizing his ideal job and still hasn’t heard anything! Dr. Fleet asks the man if he’s sent any of his resumes out to which the man says no.

So take some action NOW! Don’t be like the guy with all his resumes visualizing but not taking any action to make his dreams a reality. By the way, you know what happens when you don’t take action? NOTHING! And sometimes that is the worst thing of all. Also, for those who might be letting fear stop them from taking action, I would say to you, how do you know things aren’t going to go your way? What if they actually do? What if your new business idea IS successful and changes the world? What if you do find your soul mate? What if you do get into your ideal college? Wouldn’t that action be worth the risk???