“The greatest obstacle on your way to success is you yourself.”
In this post I want to talk a little bit about the concept of taking action and what it means to be out of the comfort zone.
Many of you have probably heard people talk about taking action and why it is crucial in the achievement of goals. Today, following the concept of taking action has almost become like a religion of its own, like a clan that you can join solely for the purpose of taking action together. There are probably thousands of business coaches that have devoted themselves to teaching this concept to others. And while it may seem like common sense to some people, or another business coaching cliché to others, believe it or not, it is what most people lack. That’s right, most of us don’t understand that taking action is critical! People are all smart, active, and goal-oriented, in theory, but whenever we dig a little deeper into the person’s psyche, we realise that the person lacks that fundamental action-taking principal just like anyone else. Surely some of us make an attempt to once in a while act on something out of the comfort zone, but because it causes so much hassle and stress, we try to avoid it as much as we can.
That being said, there are people that live their life by taking action every single day. Their life is full of surprises and excitement, and every day offers them something new. And it isn’t like that because they were born that way, and exciting things naturally happen to them, but because they consciously choose to live that way. Once again, the key to this is taking action and following your dreams.
Listening to success stories of these people, and reading about their lives inspires and motivates me to the extent that I can no longer sit still, knowing that I too can be making my dreams become reality.
Limiting beliefs
Unfortunately, many of us, including me were not born with this inner spark and were not raised to understand that we can continuously be breaking barriers, taking action and trying something new on a daily basis. I am also limited to my own beliefs and opinions that have been restricting me my whole life. However, because we live in the “age of the Internet”, it has become easier than ever to acquire the skills of life-loving and action-taking from the people that have necessary experience and are willing to share with us, for which I am very grateful to them.
Despite having access to all the information that we need, most of prefer to have our eyes shut and ears closed, so that the gray reality that we live in would remain convenient and soothing. As an outcome, we come back to the notion of taking action. To take action means to get out of the comfort zone. To take action means go against your beliefs. To take action means to take risks. However, to take action also means to begin breathing and living again. To take action means to be learning. To take action means to feel excitement and happiness in a whole new way. To take action means to develop yourself as a personality, to grow and be open-minded to new experiences. The list can go on and on.
So if we really think about it, what is holding us back from taking action? In short, our mind. If we break it down a little, we may see that there are are quite a few factors on our way. At least it seems so.
- The first factor is the fear of changes, which I have already discussed here.
- The second factor is the feeling of fear of failing in whatever we have begun.
- The third factor is the fear of being on this journey all alone. The feeling that there is nobody to support us as we grow, and nobody to hold our hands and help us as we move on further.
- The final factor (in my list) is the fear induced by society, and has its roots as deep as they can go. It is holding us back from achieving our goals and often talks to us in the following manner: “what you are trying to achieve is impossible… If it could be achieved, everybody would be doing it. Don’t do it, you will miserably fail and be the subject of critique for others!”
The society has taken full responsibility to teach us the lifestyle that we should be living. It has defined what is right and what is wrong. It states that we should be doing what all people have been doing for hundreds of years. We shall be born, then we should study well in order to get a nice job that could keep us busy and covered financially. We would be able to pay all our bills and go on a 2 to 4-week holiday once a year to some sunny place to enjoy the little holiday that we have. Then we return back home and start the year aaaaaaall over. It is a rat wheel that we have been taught to see as the most comfortable lifestyle. We get a family, save up for a house and college for the children, and then finally when we are 60+ years old, we can relax by doing nothing and wait for our death to slowly approach us until it finally takes us to the better place. Sounds familiar? Feels like a dream that you would want to pursue? I sure don’t!
The society has taught us that this is the normal lifestyle that everyone should be living. But what about the really successful people, you may think? What about the wealthy spiritually and financially humans that we see on TV and read books about? What about them? Well, because of the dogma that most of us are living by, it feels like these people are not real, as if they are some made-up heroes that used super powers to get to the place in which they are now. Well, it’s true, it is a super power that they used, but it’s a super power that we all can use, and it’s called taking action!
How to get motivated to take action
It may be so that you are beginning to notice that you don’t feel too comfortable doing what you do. Maybe your boss is not treating you well, maybe you don’t like the field of studies that you have chosen and are now obligated to stick to, or maybe you don’t see anything happy in your nearest future. You have been thinking about making some difference, but you are not sure where to start… My advice to you is to start using the Internet to your benefit. Begin by getting everything negative and unnecessary out of your life. If you love to spend days looking at photos of other people and reading pointless comments on the social media, get rid of that habit now! Stop following the news every morning and definitely before sleep. Most of the news are negative and will make a negative impact on you. You may not notice it, but when day after day you keep reading about people being killed and wars breaking out, trust me, you won’t be able to stay as a happy and joyful person.
You probably know already what I am going to say about the television, don’t you?… If you do watch something, choose what you watch instead of being fed what you don’t need (it’s not enough to switch the channel!).
Friends. Choosing your friends is also very important. Unfortunately, if you currently are living a lifestyle that involves you going out with friends and drinking beer, you will have to let that go, at least until you have reached some major milestone in your path. You are now seriously thinking of making some changes, and the chances are that your friends will not be on the same page with you are pretty high. Why would they? To make it even worse, they will probably not understand you and will probably want you to keep having fun with them, “enjoying” life, hanging around, gossiping.
To be able to grow, you need to surround yourself with people that are like-minded. It is one of the best ways to get motivated – find someone who is doing well in the field of life that you are aiming at as well. Look up to them and learn from them. This way you will attract everything necessary to achieve your goals a lot quicker than if you would be doing it on your own.
Letting go of friendships is the hardest thing, but it is also one of the most important sides to becoming successful. If you are planning to develop yourself, you will need to spend a lot of time with yourself, and that is why the default answer to everything counterproductive should be – NO. After some time, your friends will begin to see that you are serious about what you do. The trick is to make it that far. Many of your friends at that point will think you have gone crazy and will not get what you are about, but true friends will always understand you, no matter how “gone” you are.
You are now working on yourself. You cancelled out all the negative input from the news and the media, and you are now reading some inspirational books. Despite the fact that you were motivated, you will begin to feel a little sad and lonely at times. Worry not, as this is a completely normal reaction to major changes in life. Your mind is not used to this type of activity, and because it sees that you are in fact dead-serious, it will begin to fight back. If you haven’t already, this is the place where you begin spending a lot of time watching motivational speakers on the Internet. They don’t even have to be too “big” or famous. They can simply be positive, optimistic, motivational and successful within the field that you are aiming at, be it business, marketing, spirituality, sports or any other.
Watching various channels on Youtube has helped me tremendously to keep going harder and harder, and believing that the path that I have decided to pursue is genuine. There are thousands of people that have successfully been using the principles that some of these channels teach. Isn’t that a great motivation and proof to keep pushing further? Here are a few sources that have greatly helped and influenced me, and can do the same for you. They are blogs and websites, but they also have their Youtube channels or podcasts: Actualized.org (psychology), Projectlifemastery.com (financial wealth), T. Harv Eker (financial wealth), Tim Ferris (financial wealth), Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu (Buddhism) and Privatelabelershow.com (financial wealth) just to name a few. Oh yes, almost forgot, a non-related Youtube channel that is incredibly positive: Good Mythical Morning. Something to watch when you want to have a break from all the self-development. 🙂
These should be more than enough to get you started with taking action. They are inspirational and motivational in different ways. I can not stress enough how much these people have influenced me and thousands of others! Nevertheless, you can always find more channels and websites based on your preferences and the way you want to absorb the information. There are literally thousands of them in all possible variations! You just have to pick those with which you resonate the most.
As time passes, you will become more confident and skilful in what you do. Time equals experience, and as long as you spend time and effort developing yourself, there will be progress. Also, keep in mind that not everything always goes as planned. There might be moments when something doesn’t go right and you make a mistake. This is completely normal and also part of the journey. Take the biggest lesson from the experience, and try again from a different perspective. Developing yourself is about getting out of your comfort zone and trying out new things. Don’t forget that.
Soon enough you will probably find yourself investing in one way or another into your future, which is great! It is something that you should be doing. If you are willing to spend on your growth and development, you are becoming more mature and taking self-improvement seriously enough. It is a great indicator of inner growth.
Final words
You must understand that the most important step in the process of self-actualisation is the very first step. It is that first step that you make that defines your whole path. You can yourself choose what that step will include, but you have to make it meaningful so that you could prove to yourself that you are on the right track. It has to be meaningful to the extent that it could be regarded as the first major milestone of your path. Remember, you have decided to take action, and the first step is the most crucial and the most difficult to make. But once you do, you will be unstoppable!
I think I have said enough for this post. But if you feel like there something to add or you want to share an experience, please do. Making this journey together is a lot better than making it alone.
Thank you for being with us!
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