Remove the emotions standing in the way of taking action.
The emotions surrounding a task may involve not wanting to do something, or feeling "not in the mood." This is a form of self-created struggle that need not be the case.
What I can do instead is push past these emotions and just get to doing what needs to be done. What needs to be done right now is that I write this post.
Perfection and the desire to achieve it stand in the way of making progress in some areas. There is no such thing as something perfect. There is only what is. What could be and what should be are only figments of the imagination. Only what is matters.
I must stay focused on what it is that I have set out to do. Don't take many small breaks, take larger ones, after having put in some long focused time on creating something that I want to create.
All I have to do is take action. Get things moving, start things up, get the ball rolling, set the fat to jiggling. That is all it takes. Initiative. Exercise.
I am creating something that I feel is worth creating. I am writing what I feel (at this time) needs to be written. I am focusing my energies on what I think is required of me.
And so, taking action is the best course of action.
Thoughts and emotions don't get anything accomplished in the real world.
"Like so many brilliant people, he believes that ideas move mountains. But bulldozers move mountains; ideas show the bulldozers where to work." - Peter F. Drucker
What is right action? It is merely the appropriate response to a stimulus. It is nothing more or less moral compared to other responses.
I am interested in all sorts of things. I am mostly interested in what it takes to take action right now though. And what it takes to take action is a little energy. I here to for had not had very much energy, but now that I am waking up and going for a short walk, I find that I have much more energy than I expected.
What gives energy then? Taking action. By taking action I actually have more energy to take more action.
There is an inspirational book called
The Action Principles, written by Bill Fitzpatrick, based on his extensive learning in the martial arts. I read most of those action principles and at one point tried to apply at least a couple of them to my life. But obviously I never really got the hang of them. Because I still don't take all the action that I need to take. I still don't do all the things that I need to do. I still don't take the actions that I need to take in every situation.
I listened to a podcast this morning interviewing David K. Reynolds, the author of Constructive Living. He said that the book
Constructive Living was written to help people be ordinary. I have no problem being ordinary, but part of me thinks that if I improve myself continually in the ways in which I want to that I will be either extraordinarily good or extraordinarily bad. I am not sure which it will end up with, but that is what seems to be the case.
Remove the emotions standing in the way of taking action.
But at the same time, I don't think it is possible to
remove emotions, so what can one do? Minimize the emotions? Move past the emotions? Take action in spite of the emotional state we are in?
All of the above.
Regardless, take action.
