One of the biggest challenges often faced in modern society is that of overcoming the blocks to action. As modern citizens we have information and stimulus coming at us from an alarming number of directions. We are bombarded with information about what is the right or wrong way to do things. We are given countless pieces of advice of what is appropriate or inappropriate. We are told we must have a plan and need a clear vision of what we want before we can take any action.

While it is true that in order to achieve your desired results it is very helpful to understand what you actually want, the unfortunate side-effect of having all this overloading information is that more often than not it can lead to action paralysis!

Simply put, action paralysis is the condition where you either are too overloaded to know where to start or you believe that every action you might take is the “wrong” action and thus you remain stationary or stagnant rather than take action. This condition is, perhaps, one of the biggest and most difficult issues to overcome for many people. Just take a moment and think about the times this may have been true for you. Maybe it was something personal such as deciding where to go to school, whether to break up with someone, trying to tell a friend some bad news, picking out the right color paint or figuring out whether to move to a new city. Perhaps it was something professional such as which career path to take, quitting your job before finding another, telling your boss what the real problem was or finding the vendor to meet all the criteria. Each of these situations offers the opportunity for paralysis and inaction from possible overload or fear of “getting it wrong”. There are countless other examples where this can be true as well.

Take a moment and make a list of 4-5 times in your life when you’ve felt action paralysis and didn’t know what to do about it. Look at the list and notice what your reason for action paralysis was. Was it a fear of getting it wrong? Did you have so much information you didn’t know where to start? Where you afraid you weren’t good enough? Could you not decide what was most important to you?

Whatever it was that stopped you, the first step in moving to action is the same – understanding the personal value that motivates your action. Sometimes this can seem daunting as well but maybe not as much as it seems. Make a list of 5 things that are important to you in life. Maybe it’s community, self-sufficiency, humor, health or any number of other important values. Now take a moment to think of 2 actions you could take, regardless of potential outcome, that could be related to each of those values.

With just that simple list you’ve already moved past the point of action paralysis and into action! The process is really that simple – figure out what’s important to you, figure out a few possible actions to address that value and then pick one. It’s not so important whether the first action you take is perfect because once you actually take action you’ve begun the process of refinement. If this action doesn’t lead directly to the results you want you check in on what’s still important and you take another action.

By continuing this process you move to a path of action that will eventually find clear refinement for you in the best option. Take care not to take foolish actions with obvious negative consequences and then simply don’t worry about being stopped!

How many other ways can this simple process cut through the overload or fear of failure for you? What would be different if you simply moved to action first and then worried about whether it was the perfect action?

What would you like to take action on right now?

By: Angel True – Synergy Coach
True Living Synergy Coaching
Angel works with individuals & businesses to empower their passions, move into action, and transform dreams into reality.  In building Synergy in Life, Business & Spirit Angel’s simply philosophy is Do What You Love, Love What You Do!