Too often, we birth an idea only to let it wither and die without giving it a chance to fully develop. You know where in your life you want to make a shift. And in most cases, a good idea comes immediately to mind:
- I want to start my own business. IDEA: Hire a business coach.
- I want to lose weight. IDEA: Join a gym.
- I want to find a loving partner. IDEA: Sign up with an online dating service.
- I want to dance, sing, write, or play an instrument. IDEA: Enroll in a class.
So why do we oftentimes hesitate to take action after a perfectly reasonable – yet challenging – idea comes to mind? When we were children, we got an idea and the next minute we were doing it. It’s as if there was no thought process taking place between the idea and the action. It was, “Hey, that sounds like fun!” and ZOOM you’re in the middle of it.
But somewhere between childhood and adulthood a gap occurs, which then begins to widen between the idea and the action. Somehow, immediate action gets edged out by excuses, rationalization, insecurity, and the like.
Few people retain this natural, childlike Bias Toward Action. Why is this? Perhaps a strict and controlled upbringing prevented this bias from blossoming into adulthood? Maybe your school and work environments, with their highly structured rules and regulations, discouraged this bias from flourishing? Or perhaps a past failure was so devastating that you, yourself, shut down your bias out of fear of failing again?
Can a Bias Toward Action be relearned, rekindled, or restored? The answer is yes. Change begins with awareness.
While writing this segment, I thought back to when I first hatched the idea to ride a century (100 miles in one day). Now at that point, I’d never cycled more that 44 miles in one day.
I began riding during the pandemic. From the very beginning, the idea of training to ride 100 miles seemed daunting yet oddly exciting. Suddenly, I found myself thinking, Gee, I wonder why I keep putting it off. I can do this!
Hold Please! There’s a lesson here: We don’t have to wait until we discover WHY we’ve hesitated to act.
As soon as I got the idea, I accessed my Bias Toward Action, and called my buddy at the bike store who trains people to ride 100 miles. Voila! We started training the following week.
Update: On Sept 20, 2022 I completed my Century Ride. :o) And was it ever a blast!
You see, it’s not just a matter of acting – but purposefully reacting. Shift your focus to what you want. Stop thinking about why you procrastinated and take action!