Action is key, without it there are no results.

I once heard a story about Hockey player Wayne Gretzky and an answer he gave to the question about how many goals he had been able to achieve.  His answer:  “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

So true.

I spent earlier years of my life talking about everything I wanted to do and be.  I have always called this my “sitting on the bar stool” stage.  I did some mean planning while having cocktails.  I was going places.  I was destined.  I was on my way…. to a hangover, where I would undoubtedly forget the plans and future that I had so carefully mapped out the night before.

The problem with the bar stool life method is that one doesn’t tend to get very far.  Often only to a new bar stool.  Talk is cheap.  It would be very nice if the world would just come to us and offer all the many things that we feel we deserve.  The relationships, the careers, the money, the success… the happiness are all ours by right should we decide to get up off our asses and do something to make them a possibility.

Warning: satisfaction not guaranteed.  Sometimes the action provides a result that we feel we could have done without.  Invariably I have learned more from the things I didn’t enjoy than the ones that came easy.  Sad, but true.

But taking the action is always a positive.  If I believe I am able to do or be something in my world it is vital that I take the steps to make that happen.  It is not, as I have mentioned above, going to be handed to me on a silver platter.  HELL, most people aren’t going to believe you are capable of things if you don’t step up and show them it is there.  Without the action there is nobody to blame if you are not achieving the goals you want.  Without the action there is every reason to fall into moods of self-deprecation or delusion that who you are is enough for this lifetime.  It is very easy to settle.

That isn’t to say that who you are ISN’T who you want to be.  Sometimes people have reached a satisfying goal… undoubtedly reached by some form of action.  But, speaking for myself, I can say that there is more of a ratio of people out there that continue to have a dream or two of something more than they have already achieved in their lives.  Each achievement that we’ve made is proof that we are capable of action and each should be a barometer … a piece of solid proof that we can do it again.

Convince yourself.

There are still many things to do on my bucket list.  I have places to go, things to see… and accomplishments that have been part of my inside identity since I was young.  While there are no guarantees that I will hit everything on that list I’ve created… I can pretty much know for sure that I will not do them if I don’t make the attempt.

I cannot win the lottery if I don’t have a ticket.  I cannot know that I will not be a working writer if I don’t pitch the stories or attempt to publish the books.  I cannot get the role if I don’t audition for the part.  I will not get to the 2012 Olympics in London if I don’t make the plans and book the rooms and flights.

Action is infectious.  For every action I take, whether it provide me a success or a “failure” (knowing that my failure is possibly the point towards a future success… or at the very least a good lesson towards it…)  I find the surrounding feeling exhilarating and magically intense.  I live on the adrenalin of breaking my own barriers and stepping out of routines.  There is nothing more rewarding than taking a good leap of faith.  What better way to test and practice it?

Currently I am taking several action steps in my life.  They are feeding me and giving me the happiness that a human craves.  There is a fantasy that is part of this process… the thought of what could be.  It’s like buying a lottery ticket, each time you do it could potentially change your life.  Every action is a lottery (most with far better odds).  There is no “trying” to do something, you either do it or you don’t. Trying is not necessarily the best show of commitment that could be made.  Take the action with a passion that will provide that 100% effort.  The result is not always up to us… and with the expectation kept to a minimum we will gain from any result that is achieved.

How’s your week going?  Get up off of that bar stool and take that action!!

Be Well.  Be Happy.  Be.

Posted: 02|15|10 at 9:59 pm. Filed under: What If I Told you....
Tags: action, change, result
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