Think of life like a book with many chapters.
Each chapter is filled with new experiences, activities, responsibilities and new settings, and new challenges. What you do in each chapter determines how your story ends.
What do you have to show for your past chapters? Did you take enough action? Did you act on your goals?
Your actions are the decisions you make at a specific moment in time that will determine how the rest of your story unfolds. You are literally writing your life story every day.
You have two choices: think and stare at a blank space all day or take important and intentional actions to change the trajectory of your life.
Most people are good at the first part: thinking. But then they overthink and do less. Life unfolds without their deliberate inputs.
They rarely influence the outputs in their lives. There are many reasons why people shy away from taking action and making changes in their lives, but only one of them matters: They don’t believe they can.
Those who believe they can’t take good action believe one of two things:
- There’s no way I can do that right now
- Maybe someday, but not today.
Why do some people spend their time passively going through life rather than actively living it? Successful and highly productive people are good at both thinking and doing.
They build systems to make the process easier. There are many ways to take action in your life, but they all involve taking a stand and making choices.
“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does,” William James once said.
Action creates impact. Impact changes lives.