Have you ever had a great idea or a burning desire to do something that you knew in your heart would be successful? I bet the answer is Yes. Think about when the idea or desire became “real” and think about how long it took you to act on it. For regular folks, unfortunately, the timeline is infinity. Meaning they had good intentions but never followed through. They let the idea live a full life in their head but never gave it a dwelling place in the physical world. It seemed so real, so easy to do until it was necessary for the idea to breath the same air you do.
The truth is ACTION is the bridge between the mental and physical realm. Those who lack action are no better than those who remain ridden for the day. They are walking dreamers, or better yet walking zombies. They don’t look like it, but they are dying more and more everyday due to their inability to execute on their thoughts or desires. They start going through life in the same, boring patterns and habits without much thought or yearning for anything outside of their norm. To them I say
“Get busy living, or get busy dying”!
Action is so simple but yet so hard for some. It requires us to test our thoughts and to face the reality of our ideas may not be as good as we thought. On the other hand action may prove our ideas where actually great ideas and catapult us into more action which maybe you weren’t prepared for. Nevertheless, action is still required if we have any intention on ever acquiring that in which we dream about. In my experience both personal and professional I have found 3 keys to help:
- NOW is the only known time. Life can change so quickly and unexpectedly that NOW is the only time we know with certainty. Finances, jobs, schedules, and more all change with time. More importantly YOUR MIND CHANGES! It’s better to act while it’s fresh on your mind than relying on you to remember later.
- Procrastination is a habit. Just as you can establish good habits over time, the same goes for bad habits. The worse part about bad habits is they effect every area of your life. So if you procrastinate on your ideas, you will definitely procrastinate in other areas of your life as well. Remember “how you do anything is how you do everything”.
- Life is too short. This one cannot be anymore self explanatory. You simply don’t have time to waste just “thinking” about what you want to do, or wish you could do. It’s arrogant at best to walk through life as though you will always have time later. In addition, how dare you continue to put your hopes and dreams on hold with the intent to “do it later”. Dreams are meant to be lived NOW not placed on hold for the future.
I hope this list helps you to start acting on your ideas and desires NOW. One of my personal pet peeves are people who are so on fire with ideas, but bear absolutely no fruit from them. They have it all figured out mentally, but have nothing to show for it physically. I encourage you all to not just be mere sayers, but doers of what you believe and desire.
As always comments are welcome as well as any additional tips that can help us act on our ideas quickly and effectively.
As you can see there is a world of difference (and growth) between the two drawings above. Though I have not drawn consistently through the last 10 years I have never given up on myself. No matter how long I left the pencil down, it seems like after a while it would start calling me to draw again. I am so glad I never gave up because the picture above alone is worth the process. The thing is the picture above doesn't fully represent my total growth. I have also acquired the skill of digital painting. Using a Wacom Tablet and Photoshop I have been taught how to paint digitally which gives my drawings a lot more life and dimension. This is illustrated below:
Above is just a quick value study to give the drawing depth. One day I look forward to finishing this painting in full color. Until then, I hope this post has been inspirational proof enough to show you what a continual, intentional effort at becoming better can yield. If I could sum this post up into a few encouraging words they would be "Do anything but stop". The day you stop trying is the day you stop growing. So keep going and keep growing!
