Fear can keep you from taking action; it’s often the ego’s way of keeping you “safe.” It tricks you into thinking that, just because you’re planning, you’re necessarily making progress toward your desired outcome. Seductive thought, but not really true.
This is a big, honkin’ topic, and I wasn’t sure how to tackle it. Then I had an inspired thought that supports my ongoing efforts to let things be easy: How about I share some of my favorite energizing quotes on planning, action, inaction, and fear?
So here they are.
• To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing. — Eva Young
• The reason that everybody likes planning is that nobody has to do anything. – Jerry Brown
• Sometimes we put so much effort into things we're doing that we don't stop to think about whether or not we even want the results of that effort. – Emily V. Gordon
• Action is the foundational key to all success. – Pablo Picasso
• There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long-range risks of comfortable inaction. – John F. Kennedy
• Action expresses priorities. – Mahatma Gandhi
• I never worry about action, but only inaction. – Winston Churchill
• Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action. – Benjamin Disraeli
• Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all. – Norman Vincent Peale
• I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear. – Rosa Parks
• Thinking will not overcome fear but action will. – W. Clement Stone
• If you have a dream, you can spend a lifetime studying, planning, and getting ready for it. What you should be doing is getting started. – Drew Houston
• Infuse your life with action. Don't wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. – Bradley Whitford
• Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy. – Dale Carnegie
• Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in. – Napoleon Bonaparte
• You must take action now that will move you towards your goals. Develop a sense of urgency in your life. – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• The time for action is now. It's never too late to do something. – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
• Always do what you are afraid to do. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Feel the fear and do it anyway. – Susan Jeffers
If you can take one scary, or even just uncomfortable, action step every day, you can build a habit of acting despite fear or discomfort. And that will make you damn near unstoppable.
For more tips to help you play a bigger game, check out my free DIY Guides. The bullet-point format is designed to help you take action!
(BTW, thanks to Kim Stovring for posting the action image in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.)
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