Getting the desired outcomes you want out of life.
According to Sir Isaac Newton’s Third Law of Motion, “When one body exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the first body.” In simple terms, this Law of Physics has become one of the world’s everyday maxims: To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
Now, you do not need to have been a good student of science in school, to know that this is accurate about the choices you make on a daily basis. Your life is a combination of habits, decisions and lifestyle choices which form your character. Who you are and where you are on your journey today, is the product of your actions or inactions.
Haven’t you noticed that the longer you delay in taking a required action about a core area of your life, the harder it is to get a result? When you do not engage at a set time, it may lead to a setback. It is never too late to do what can potentially turn the course of your life around. However, every wise man knows that “there are no shortcuts to the top of the palm tree.” This African Proverb vividly reinforces that you will only get what you desire when you pursue after it with all your strength.
Friend, ‘TAKING ACTION’ is doing the things you need to do to get the desired outcomes you want in your life. Are you at a critical point in your life? Does that ‘fork in the road’ confuse you about the life-altering decision you desperately need to make? Fear not. As long as it is a laudable desire, the fact that you are actually considering it, is a good sign.
In 2002, I was working at SystemSpecs, (a tech company) in Lagos, Nigeria. A while later, I resigned to start my own business. Some people thought I had lost my mind. How do you leave something stable and secure and venture into the unknown? Leaving SystemSpecs to start MediaVision was following my dreams. You see, when you chase your dreams, you are on the path to fulfil them. It’s the first step in the long process of making your dreams a reality. Now, over 16 years later, the company is still doing very well. I took action and one of the things I learnt during that period of my life is that “too much analysis leads to paralysis.”
If you are not doing what you ought to by now, here are three things that may be stopping you from taking action:
- You are spending too much time thinking about it.
Overanalyzing that issue doesn’t mean you still won’t make mistakes along the way. You want to write a book, or you want to start a business? Just take the necessary action! Do it now! Inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison, took 10,000 attempts to get it right! There is no shame in trying and not succeeding. It is not trying at all that should be a concern to you.
- You are waiting for the perfect conditions.
Believe me, the variables will never always be complete or right. Something will always be missing. What I didn’t tell you earlier about my venture into the business world was that all my friends and I had was a dream. Money, which most entrepreneurs require, was the one thing we lacked. However, if your dream is big enough, and you believe in it enough, there is no obstacle that you cannot overcome.
- You need to shut out the naysayers.
People will tell you that “you are not good enough.” That the business idea cannot work. Team sports and individual sports are so different in the sense that while you need teammates to step up and contribute in a team scenario, in single competitions, you can only truly BANK on yourself. Ethiopian legend, Haile Gabrselassie is generally considered as the greatest long distance runner of all time. He discovered his later career by carrying his books and running ten kilometres to and from school, every day. Sometimes, all you need is to be your own ‘Number One’ fan. Drown out the noise and start running!
Life comes to all of us in different shades and designs. What someone else may fail at, you could make a success of. But, you have to be prepared to take the necessary actions when the moment of your breakthrough arrives. Make that move, today!
Remember, you have only one life to live; make it count!
