TAKING ACTION MAKES US IMMUNE TO FAILURE

I’ve read over 100 books about health, philosophy, wisdom, wellness, self-discovery, and self-development. There are numerous pearls of wisdom and knowledge in these books which I have taken with me in life. One of my favorite books is Phil Stutz’s “Lessons for Living”, from which this article is inspired. 

Taking action is one of the most important life skills that we can learn.  We often talk about planning, doing, or creating something that our immediate life experience needs or that the world needs. Then seemingly, we find reasons why this action never took hold. Something interrupts or distracts us, or we simply procrastinate. Taking action is an important skill and habit in our lives because it makes us immune to failure. Let’s explore this.

We need faith to take action -- faith that no matter what the outcome of the action is (success, failure, or some of each), we will be ok. Considering that successes and failures are temporary states, this means our faith needs to overcome the notion of (temporary) failure. The need for faith to take action is what Phil Stutz refers to as ‘Intelligence of the Will’. He states that ‘your will is not just an energy that enables us to do things, it’s also a perceptive force’.  Meaning, that your faith in taking action has intelligence behind it. Taking action gives us wisdom beyond the knowing or the outcome. It is wisdom to take more action, and it’s a higher force within us all.

In today’s world, we view intelligence as a thought process inside our brains. This kind of intelligence is not wisdom. This is knowing. True intelligence is wisdom in the world around us. Ancient philosophers believed the universe is one live organism intertwined with intelligence from higher forces. To have wisdom is to have faith in our higher self.  Our higher self naturally accepts successes or failures as a part of an intelligence path. Today, scientists illustrate the universe as a random collection of objects given life through a cosmic force. This is not wisdom. This is a form of knowing, whether accurate or not. The only way to find wisdom is by taking action.

Even when our instincts tell us to take action, people usually do not take action because it means facing our fear of failure. Our vitality indwells on taking action for the sake of wisdom regardless of the outcome.

There are 3 key success principles to take more action in our lives:

1.     SPEED

Take action now, ASAP, today. Procrastinating diminishes the value of the action, thus the less time you allow to act the better. Doing the action, regardless of the outcome, improves your confidence to take more action. Even a failed action will improve your confidence more than a successful one with procrastination.

2.    DENSITY

Volume of actions. The more actions you take, the more your action-taking becomes a habit. Start with one or two actions each day and aim to make the action a habit. These can be small actions such as calling a friend you’ve been thinking about or planting your garden. Actions can be part of your tasks list; the point is to make the action happen. Commit to doing one or two small actions a day and work up to three small ones per day or maybe one larger action per day or week. This builds your confidence in the fact that taking action is more important than the result.

3.    REVIEW

Reserve 5-10 minutes every night to review the actions taken during the day and plan the actions for tomorrow. Writing puts a greater commitment in your mind to make things happen going forward. Start your next day prepared to take action with speed.

Start with small actions using these three principles. You will learn from both failures and successes, which is good for building character and knowledge. Yet, the importance is in the action of taking life force towards wisdom, regardless of the outcome.

Taking action ultimately leads to the wisdom of your higher self. This wisdom makes you immune to failure. The next time you feel inspired to create or explore, the next time your instincts kick in, or if you have an existing idea, take action toward wisdom.