If you do not take action, your dreams will remain realities in the invisible world
Newton’s first law of motion says; “all objects remain at a state of rest until a force is applied”. That tells you that in this natural world nothing moves until you move it. If you see anything moving on this planet, there is a force moving it. Action bridges the gap between dream and reality.
Action as Proof of Faith
Thomas Edison said success is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. It is good to listen to tapes; it is good to read books; it is good to attend seminars; it is good to be fired up and inspired. But after all of that, do something. If you do not take action, your dream will remain realities in the invisible world. Faith without a corresponding action is dead. In other words, lack of action kills dreams. The proof that you believe something is in your doing it. If you do not do it, you do not believe it. If you believe you are a millionaire, you will do the things that will bring you the millions. If you believe that you will get a job, you will go where the job is and do whatever you have to do to get the job. I am encouraging you to be an executive.
I always thought an executive is someone who dresses in suit and tie and carries some briefcase around town; someone who drives around in a posh car and works in an air-conditioned office. That may not always be the case. Executive is from the word ‘execute’. An executive is therefore someone who knows how to plan and knows how to execute those plans. The world will not recognize you for what you are planning to do but for what you have done. There is no recognition for a dreamer whose dream has not yet become a reality. The dreamers we recognize in the world are those who have turned their dreams into reality.
Be Passionate about Your Dream
A former judge in the United State once said, ‘life is action and passion, therefore it is required of a man that he should share the passion and action of his time at the peril of being judged not to have lived. In other words, there are people who are breathing but who are not alive. Life is action and passion. You begin to take action the moment you are born; there is no time for rehearsals. Some people live their lives as if there is another life; as if they are only here to prepare.
Of what use is rehearsal if you will not participate in the real play? Life is about action; it is about passion. Do not be a spectator in life; jump on the field and be part of the action. Time is going and it is of essence. Take advantage of the opportunities you have today. Do not procrastinate. Do it now. You can only be alive once; you do not have a spare life elsewhere. Get the most out of every single day.
Be Prompt and Courageous
There is a time to dream, but you must know when to snap out of your dreams and turn them into reality. In January, some people are fond of saying, “it’s just the beginning of the year,” as if it’s not yet time to do anything. But the year is already going almost ten percent of the year is already gone by the end of January. Whatever you plan to do in the New Year can start on the first of January. You have to make things happen. There is one basic quality of heart that we need to take action; courage. Success is not for fearful people. You need courage to take action.
Courage is simply acting in the presence of fear. If you take fear out, courage loses its definition. The important thing is that you must not allow fear to snatch the initiative from you. Most successful people have fear like everyone else, but they act in spite of their fear.
Fear of Failure
There are different kinds of fear. Fear in itself is not altogether bad, it is a defence mechanism that God programmed into us to warn us of danger. There are different kinds of fear that keep people from succeeding. There is the fear failure. That is the biggest reason why people don’t succeed. They ask; “what if it doesn’t work out?” they are too many variables in the world. We do not live in a perfect world. So you cannot afford to wait until everything looks right and success is absolutely certain. He who observes the wind will not sow and he who regards the cloud will not reap.
Fear of Criticism
There is also the fear of criticism. Some always ask, “What will people say?” in a society like ours that is riddled with mediocrity and poverty, that is a big thing to consider. You know what? People will always talk! If you succeed, they will talk, if you fail, they will blame you. It is up to you to fulfill your destiny and give them something to talk about.
How to Overcome Fear
Now, you have to deal with fear if you are going to be able to take action. Fear literally paralyzes initiative. It snatches from you the ability to act. Fear kills your enthusiasm. It creates imaginary difficulties. That is why someone spelt fear as; False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear makes you to focus on wrong questions. What if it does not happen? What if you die? What if it doesn’t work out? I have found out that fear frustrates self control. How do you overcome fear? Be conscious or be filled with the spirit of God; “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of sound mind”.
Do the Things You Fear
Do the things you fear and the death of fear is certain. Usually there must be some powerful miracle waiting for you whenever the devil tries to scare you from taking action. Go for it. Do it. Bold action is the key to outstanding results.
Some people want to wait till they feel like doing it. If you have to wait till you do what you feel like doing to succeed, you may have to wait forever. Whether you feel like it or not, do it anyway. You do not have to feel like breathing before you breathe. So do not wait till you feel like doing something. Just do it.
Be Focused
If you are going to do it, then you have to be focused. It is concentrated, focused action that produces or guarantees results. When you check the stonecutter, sometimes he may give a stone one thousand blows before it cracks. But wisdom tells you that is not the one-thousandth blow that cracked up the stone. Everything he did before that last one added to it. So you have to learn focused and persistent action.
Get someone to inspire you
I recommend you have a mentor, because when you take action and start that business or take that shop, it is not always going to be easy as you think it will be. And just when you are beginning to feel low and frustrated, if you can but find someone to inspire you, then you can go on and try again. That has been a great blessing to my life. A few years ago, I was finding it difficult to get the attendance at our events beyond a few hundreds; I attend large conferences hosted by my mentors. There, I would say to myself, “it’s possible.” Without inspiration, you may lose heart.
Have a Backup Plan
Let me put it this way: act scared. Approach what you do as if something is going to go wrong. Be prepared in case it does not work exactly the way you want it. Have another plan you can fall back on.
Break the Habit of Procrastination
Henry Wheeler Shaw once said that the greatest thief the world has produced is procrastination and he is still at large. We have not been able to arrest procrastination. Procrastination is the thief of time. I want to urge you to break that habit. Destiny delayed is the devil’s delight. The more you put off action, the more you put off breakthrough. The devil is excited when you refuse to do today what you could do today.
Each time you put off till tomorrow what you could do today, the devil is excited because you are delaying a miracle. The devil is excited because he knows that tomorrow never comes. Today is the tomorrow you spoke about yesterday. Maybe you never thought about it, but the plain truth is, you will never live in tomorrow, because whenever tomorrow arrives, its name changes to today. Whatever you are planning to do tomorrow, start it now.
Be Persistent
If you are doing something, be persistent. If you do it and it does not work out, try again. You must have a good attitude towards failure. That you tried and failed does not make you a failure. If you tried and fail and now fail to try again, that is when you are a failure. Failures are simply successful people who gave up too soon. Successful people are failures who refuse to give up. You will not be the first person to make a mistake. If you have books on success and have non on failure, your library is incomplete. Find a book that can help you to deal with failure or else your journey will be terminated.
In fact, the best way to increase your success rate is to increase your failure rate, because success is born out of failure. Look into the backyard of successful people and you will see the relics of ideas that did not work. Successful people usually don’t tell you about their failures and mistakes. That is why you assume their life is different from yours.
Learn the lesson. Forget the details. You thought your last failure was the worst one in the world; some people have committed bigger blunders than that. Learn the lesson, forget the details and try again. No temptation has overtaken you except such is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
If you carry a negative attitude, you will not find the way of escape. You need to relax. You need to have peace in your heart. But bear this fact in your mind, there is always a way. I pray you find it.
