3 Lies You Tell Yourself to Avoid Taking Action

One of the most important components in self-improvement or personal development is taking action. Little can be achieved if we only focus on theory and neglect personal, direct experiences. We could read the most thought-provoking books and articles about self-improvement, and it would mean nothing if the content does not impact our actions. Intellectual development is important, but it is only half a part of the recipe to a fulfilling life.

We must accept and understand that we cannot achieve improvement without action. Changing the way we think is useful only if it changes the way we act.
If we know, consciously or instinctively, that taking action is such an important part of personal (or any kind of) development, why then it remains so difficult?

The reasons for inaction are several:

Fear

Fear is a strong emotion. It served a great and important purpose in our evolutionary story and I believe we can give thanks to it for bringing us where we are now as a species.

But the world has changed since our ancestors wandered in the African wilderness. The roles of prey and predator have changed and today humans are subject to very few natural threats. Fear, as an evolutionary tool, is not needed anymore.
We no longer have reasons to fear the wild animals that used to prey upon us: But fear, as an emotion, still lingers within us, so we have replaced the natural threats in order to fit fear into our reality.

Most of our fears can be summarized in the fear of what others will think about us: Fear of failure, of ridicule, of inadequacy.

Would fear invoke a negative reaction in yourself if you knew by a fact that nobody would ever know that you failed? Unlikely.

We are no longer prey of wild animals, but we have become the prey of our own kind.

Overcoming Fear

I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain. – Bene Gesserit’s litany against fear of the Dune Saga by Frank Herbert.

I don’t believe fear is something we should try to “beat” or “fight against”. Accepting that we need to “beat” our fear is accepting subconsciously that we could be beaten by it. And this is a discouraging mindset to hold.

I prefer to see fear as a natural stage in our development as human beings. And as with any stage, fear is something we must seek to overcome and learn from it while we do it. What we fear can tell a lot about ourselves and our stages of development as individuals. We do not fear the same things today that we feared when we were children.

Think about what you fear today and accept there is something to learn from it. You don’t fight against your teachers, even when they put you through hard trials. Use fear as a call to action, as fuel to improve.

Ignorance

Lack of knowledge is another common excuse to discourage action.

But if you are reading this, it means that you belong to the part of the planet that has access to the whole knowledge of humankind at the distance of their fingers. There is NOTHING that you cannot learn if you have an Internet connection. Whether is to start your own business as if you were a Harvard graduate or learning to sew grumpy cat memes to your underwear, the knowledge is at your disposal 24 hours of the day, 7 days a week the 354 days of the year.

What is stopping you is not lack of knowledge, but lack of will. Accepting this is liberating. You cannot address the real issues that are holding you back as long as you remain telling lies to yourself.

I am not good enough

This one might be true. Maybe you are not good enough to start that business, or not good enough for that promotion you have been wanting for the last 2 years.

But if you think about your 10-years-ago-self, s/he wasn’t good enough to be or to do what you are or do now neither. But you have changed and grow and evolve until the point when you become good enough to your present circumstances. So why not being good enough to your new goals is an excuse for avoiding taking action?

Using the “I am not good enough” excuse is like going to the gym and conclude that you will never be able to do weight lifting because you were unable to lift the 300K Kg bar on day 1. It would be really dumb to say that right? Well, that is exactly what you say to yourself every time you think that you are not good enough for anything.

Taking action is not an option, is a must. If you are not taking action, it means there is something about yourself or your habits you have to figure out. A simple little tweak in your mindset can go a long way. Chances are you are holding a flawed belief somewhere. Don’t get discouraged by this, but instead let it motivate you to relearn that what you think is true about your reality.