The Power of Action

“How we spend our days, is of course, how we spend our lives.”nn--Annie Dillard

One of the laws of success is that the universe rewards those who take action. It rewards you for what you do, not for what you know. This is a very simple concept to understand, but it’s surprising the number of people who seem to spend their days doing everything else except for taking action. While planning is often a necessary thing to do before acting, there’s such a thing as too much planning or waiting for the mythical “perfect moment” to appear. When I was a rookie officer straight out of the police academy, my salty field training officer told me, “Son, put the books away. Now it’s time to get your feet wet.” He was right. There are some things that are just impossible to learn without actually doing them. By taking action, you immerse yourself in that rich pool of learning and your absorb knowledge as you go along.

The Magnetic Properties of Actio

Similar to the law of attraction, there is an even greater magnetic force that happens when you decide to take action. The universe begins to deliver to you all the resources that you need to complete your goal. When you take action, suddenly important contacts you need begin to appear, sometimes in the most unusual of places. Also, you begin to attract the experience, funds, and other resources you need to make your goal a success. What was once confusing or vague begins to become crystal-clear when you take action. Difficult or even seemingly impossible things become manageable and easier to conquer. The more you lean into your goal, the greater the magnetic forces your action creates. Soon, you begin to pull in people who will cheer for you in support. You will attract those people who won’t let you give up and will help you back to your feet should you fall during your journey. Believe in the power of action and you will summon everything that is good, positive and helpful into your life to assist you.

“The one thing that separates winners from losers is, winners take action!”nn --Anthony Robbins

Winners Take Action, Losers do Nothing

There exists two types of people out there in the world: Winners and Losers. The real difference lies in the fact that Losers only do what they feel like doing while Winners do what is necessary to get their objective completed. Losers make their decisions based upon instant gratification and short-term thinking. They live in the here and now, but never for the future. If they don’t feel like completing a certain task that will move them closer to their goal, then they won’t do it. Losers have dreams but are unable to build a stable bridge to those dreams because they don’t want to do the work necessary and in a self-perpetuating fashion, the Loser begins to complain and despise the process of taking action and setting goals because they believe it did not work for them when in fact they never really used it to begin with.

Winners, on the other hand, know what needs to be done to push themselves closer to their goals and they simply take action on those things, regardless of whether they feel like doing it or not. Winners are long-term decision-makers and can control their emotional urges to do what is best for their future.

My Early Role Model—Olympic Gold Medallist, Peter Vidmar

One of my early role models when I was training in the sport of gymnastics was Peter Vidmar, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in gymnastics and a member of the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. I remember one thing that Peter said during an interview that inspired me to make my own name in the sport and continues to inspire me to this very day in everything that I do in life. Peter said, “There’s only two things I had to do to win the Olympic gold: train when I wanted to, and train when I didn’t.” Peter understood what it took to be a Winner and this was back at the time when the U.S. men’s gymnastic team was a no-name underdog against Eastern powerhouses like China and the Soviet Union who dominated the sport of gymnastics. Peter trained consistently and always pushed himself towards excellence and that determination and dedication paid off when he was awarded the Olympic Gold twice in 1984.

“A journey of 1,000 miles must begin with one step.”nn --Ancient Chinese Proverb

There’s No Perfect Time to Start

Those who fail in life happen to be those who are always waiting for that perfect moment to act—waiting for all the stars to line up just right before they decide to start. The reality is that there is no perfect time to start and waiting for that perfect time will only lead to missed opportunities, delays and complications. The best way to learn how to swim is to get into the pool. Sure, you are going to make mistakes—maybe just a few, or maybe a lot of them, but as long as you are willing to learn from your mistakes and move forward, you will always be moving closer to your goal. If you wait till you are perfectly ready, you will be waiting forever because the perfect time is just a myth that will never come, so just face your fear, kick it to the side and start anyway. Whether you are ready or not, experienced or inexperienced, you have to make the conscious commitment to take action from wherever you are currently because it is the only way that you will get to where you want to be in the future. nn© Copyright 2006 by Tristan Loo. All rights reserved.