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Don't Get Cooked in the Squat

"Do you want to know who you are? Don't ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you."
 --- Thomas Jefferson

You may have heard the story of the man who asks his son, "Son, there are five frogs sitting on a rock. Four of them decide to jump off, how many are left on the rock?" The son replies, "That's easy. There is one left." The father says, "No, listen carefully, I said that they had decided to jump off, I didn't say that they took action."

I can relate to those frogs. I've often decided to do something, really good somethings, but then didn't follow through with the plan. I don't believe I am the only one that has done that. Coming up with great ideas is usually the easy part. It is taking action on those ideas that tends to separate the gonna-doers from the successful action-takers.

"Human beings must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it."
 --- Albert Einstein

We are designed and built for action. Some of us have really good intentions and want to act, but we lose focus allowing other things (excuses) to get in the way of our action-taking. The key that many successful people have discovered is that to take action requires adopting the Nike slogan "just do it." Even when everything in them is saying "wait," they still keep their eye on the goal and take action toward achieving it.

"It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through."
 --- Zig Ziglar

Zig Ziglar tells the story about when he was a kid, he would visit the neighbor's house for lunch and one time when the neighbor's cook took the biscuits out of the oven, the biscuits were no bigger than Zig's wrist. When he asked Maude, the cook, what happened to her biscuits she said that those biscuits squatted down to get ready to rise and they just got cooked in the squat.

Zig says that happens to people a lot. We have grand plans to make more sales, do more in business, learn a new subject, take up a hobby, but we don't follow through. We get cooked in the squat always waiting for something to change like the interest rates to go down, the kids to get out of school, the house to sell, the customer to call, etc.

"A real decision is measured by the fact that you've taken a new action. If there's no action, you haven't truly decided."
 --- Tony Robbins

Let's make 2014 the year of action. Let's not get cooked in the squat and allow excuses to dominate our actions. The weird thing about acting is that when we wait to get motivated or to feel like acting, the opportunity has passed us by. What we believe about feelings and motivation is really just the opposite of how it works. The truth is that once we act, or just do it, then the feelings and motivation comes. It is the action that needs to come first, not waiting on the feelings. If we wait until it feels right, we will be waiting a very long time.

"Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all."
 --- Norman Vincent Peale