December 4
   
   
You don't need endless time and
perfect conditions.  Do it now.
Do it today.  Do it for twenty
minutes and watch your
heart start beating.

Barbara Sher

  

Today's Meditation:

I often choose to put things off.  Sometimes it just seems that circumstances aren't right for doing anything from starting to write a new novel to changing the oil in our cars.  I may not start the novel because I have too many other things to do, and the time just isn't right-- I've used that excuse before, and I'm sure that I'll use it again.  But when I look back upon each day, I usually can find at least twenty minutes to half an hour during which I could have worked on one--and a year of twenty-minute segments definitely would allow me to finish a novel, since I can easily write a page in twenty minutes.

But I usually don't do so.  I wait.  And I shouldn't.  Maybe I'm too tired; perhaps I'm just too preoccupied.  No matter what the case, my lack of action is my decision.  And from my experience, it's not the best decision I can make.  I've often felt like not doing something, but when I've "forced" myself to do it, I've ended up enjoying myself immensely, or at least getting a strong sense of satisfaction from having accomplished something that I needed to accomplish.

As someone else has said-- probably many people-- conditions are never just right.  There's always something else going on, something that we can use as a convenient excuse for not acting, for not doing something we should or could do.  But usually action simply takes a decision to act, and we end up finding reasons to make the decision not to act.  After all, not acting is easier, and there's no risk of failure in it. 

Tomorrow, when I look back upon today, I want to at least recognize that I did something.  I want to see that I didn't let circumstances and fears control me or push me into decisions that aren't the best for me.  No matter how daunting a task may appear, we'll never know just how daunting it truly is until we actually undertake it, and that requires us to act.  Here, and now.

Questions to consider:

What kinds of things often keep us from actually getting up and starting on something that we want to start on?

Why do so many people seem to want to discourage us from taking action on seemingly risky tasks?

What does Barbara mean when she says, "watch your heart start beating"?  Isn't it beating now?

For further thought:

Conditions are never just right.  People who delay action until all factors are favorable do nothing.

William Feather

More thoughts and ideas on action

  

   

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