deep thoughts thursday

Take Action

Life is wonderful and fun and difficult all at the same time.  Throughout our lives we have many choices to make.  Sometimes they are easy and fun like where we want to go on our next vacation.  Some are more difficult such as deciding to live a healthier and happier life a new job or moving to a new area.  These decisions ebb and flow and at some points in our lives it feels as if every single decision we need to make is a difficult one.  With decisions, action is required to make it a reality.  Let me explain.

Decisions are not the easiest thing to make at times.  For instance, perhaps you want a new job.  What made you come to that realization?  Are you just not happy with the people you work with, is it extremely high stress, does it not make enough money to pay the bills or is it a combination of several things?  Whatever the reason, you have come to that decision.  With that conclusion you have realized that you need a change.  You need to consider when you will look for a new job, what type of job you want to look for and many other factors.  This series of decisions all lead to the conclusion of finding a new job and leaving the current one you are working at.  This final action might be big and scary but it needs to be made no matter the circumstances.   The whole series of making the smaller decisions that lead to finding a new job are all useless unless you take the leap and take the new opportunity that you worked hard to obtain.  All those hard small decisions led you to a new goal, a new job and perhaps a new life.  If you made all those small decisions and then didn't end up accepting a new job offer what did all that time spent on the small decisions accomplish?  The answer is absolutely nothing, you were wishing for a new job, dreaming perhaps but you were not, in reality, willing to take the action necessary to follow through with a life changing opportunity.

The same is true of your health and fitness.  You have come to the realization that you need to change or you may not survive.  You have decided you don't want to suffer a heart attack at the age of 52 so you first start an exercise routine.  You start out slowly with exercise first and then you start feeling better and looking better.  From there you add healthy eating and you start to have more energy and zest for life.  These healthy choices are leading to the bigger picture of having a healthy lifestyle and avoiding common health issues that comes from being overweight, more risk of stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and a whole host of additional health problems.  You are taking the action necessary to achieve your goals.

Each of the above cases were not easy decisions.  Both of them required some thought and planning.  More importantly both of them required taking action.  What would happen if you just thought about your plans but didn't act on them?  You came to the realization that you needed to be healthier, you didn't want to suffer a massive stroke and pass away as Luke Perry did at such a young age this week.  In your dreams you see yourself having lost lots of weight and climbing the local mountain.  If you just think of these issues will you see changes to your body?  By visualizing being in shape and not taking action do you get toned, tanned and muscular?  Of course the answer is no.  You need to take action, start your exercise, eat healthy.  Dreaming and doing are two separate things.

To be fair action might be harder than any of the first steps, the realization and the series of decisions that led you to the planning phases.  These are all important but if you did all of them and then didn't take the action required it would all be a waste of time for you and an exercise in futility.  Action is the hardest part but it is the most rewarding aspect of the decision making process.  It is the culmination of your hard work, your initial thoughts, your planning and your series of decisions.  Action is what sets you apart from the dreamers and the doers.  The distance between dreams and reality is called action!!

Until next time,

Happy Lifting and Strive to Arrive!

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