Has it ever happened with you that you asked yourself, “I know what I should be doing, but why am I not doing that?”
For example, most people on earth know that early morning routines of rising early, exercising, and eating healthy food are what one needs to build to maintain a healthy and agile body but how many of us actually take action on building that routine? And if at all we do, for how many days do we continue on that routine?
Is taking action that difficult? Could there be a systematic way through which we may fill this gap of knowing and doing?
Let’s find out.
The first objective is to understand the reasons that stop a person from taking action on the things he knows but never acts on them.
The first reason that stops us from taking action is Information overload. Suppose you want to shed some extra kilos from your body, what you will do is you will go online and search for the methods to lose weight, or you could also read a book on it. Now Every video, article, blog, or book on losing weight will more or less give you the same technique to shed weight, and the majority of them would be correct, but rather than taking action on the information given in the first video, article, blog or book, you will go on searching for that perfect material to shed weight because watching another video or reading one more article or blog is easier than getting up and taking action on what was said in the first video or written in the first article, blog or book.
The second reason that stops people from taking action on their knowledge is what I call the Limited Belief system. From a very young age, we are inadvertently trained by our family and surroundings to think why something will not work rather than thinking about the possibilities. So, before we even think of applying that idea and start taking action on it, our subconscious mind starts to explain why this information is either insufficient or why it will not work.
A third and most important reason we don’t act on what we know is that we feel too bored to do the same thing repeatedly. We find it very easy and exciting to start a new thing rather than repeating the same old thing that we learned yesterday. You might have observed in your own life how excitingly our brain jumps from one idea to another rather than sticking to one idea and finding how we can improve on that one thing. On the contrary, If we look around ourselves, we will come to realize that the people who have achieved any greatness in their field of work were the ones who focused on one idea and repeated the same until it turned into something magical.
Now that we have understood the reasons that stop us from taking action let us have a look at where does the possible solution lie? How do I convert my knowledge into actions? Let us discover the answers to the questions.
How can we solve the first problem of information overload and start acting on what we know rather than getting distracted by the abundance of information?
The trick is simple, tell yourself that you are only going to take 1 learning from the very first video, article, blog, or book which you read and will stick to it for the coming 3 days; you will take action on it immediately and repeat that for coming 3 days. After three days, you will share your learning with a friend or colleague and repeat the same cycle for coming 2 more times. As you repeat this cycle, your brain will start to store this learning permanently, and without you even realizing it, it will become a habit for you, and habits are the best way to generate automatic actions.
The second issue that stops us from taking action is the limited or negative belief system that always makes us find fault in everything good that we have around us. How can we overcome this problem? Simple — make a promise to yourself this very moment that from now onward, whatever I read, watch, or listen to, I will do that with a positive and open mindset. This means that even if you are reading, watching, or listening to the worst of information in the world, your focus would be on only finding and collecting the good things out of it. You will shift your focus to think about the good learning in that video, blog, book, or article and how you can apply that in your life to enhance its quality.
The third and most important issue that stops us from taking action is the lack of follow-up or repetition. This is the biggest issue with most of the people on earth. We start new things but fail to follow on the follow-up. One of the ways to break this chain and build a habit of repetition is to share your daily, weekly and monthly goals with a person you see or consider as a more disciplined person than you are and schedule regular meetings with that person. Here you discuss your progress with them. Have a check on what actions you took and where you lacked. What these sessions will do for you is that they will first keep you motivated and excited, and second, they will serve as an accountability platform for you where you will be bound to share the truth of your own reality and commitments towards yourself.
I am a person of belief and deeply believe in the quote, “when a man takes action, even the mountains start to shake.” If you have read this whole article, this itself shows that you are a person who is deeply committed to self-growth. I congratulate you for having the right attitude in life. The next step for you is to go and start taking action on the learning in this article; that would be the first step towards a change from knowing to doing things that you truly want to do.
You may not have an exact idea of how to turn your vision into reality, but as you start to take even the smallest of actions in that direction, doors will automatically open for you one after the other.
Don’t believe my words? You don’t have to. You only need to trust your actions; rest everything else will be taken care of! Remember that the only person who can change your life is you. Start to ACT on that change.
You will only win.
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