Stop Waiting: Choose Action
I've spent most of my life waiting for my turn. I worked hard, kept my head down, and waited for my slice of the pie. It never came, and I couldn’t deal with it. I was supporting my dreams with all kinds of jobs – lots of them – to keep the wolf from the door. And I waited and waited. Waited for my slice of the pie.
How many of us have spent our lives working hard, wearing ourselves out until we’re exhausted only to find that our turn isn’t coming? How long until we realise that waiting isn’t going to make it happen? How long until we stop waiting, take action and take our turn instead?
Waiting isn’t the same as taking action. Action creates. It builds. It moves us forward. Even if we fail, we’ve learned something, moved ourselves closer to our slice of the pie. As William F. O’Brien said, “it’s better to try and fail than never to try at all.”
Action doesn’t have to be big. It can be something tiny that builds over time. It can be an improvement to your daily routine. It can be as simple as getting up five minutes earlier. It can be something as simple as planting your own vegetables, or running to the end of the road and back. As simple as doing five press-ups every morning. And then ten press ups next week. And then fifteen the week after.
It can be as simple as not complaining for a day.
Action breeds more action which breeds results. When you start to see how powerful action is, and how action can change your world when you combine it with patience, you’ll look for ways to take action in all areas of your life.
Patience is fundamental, and it’s different from waiting. Waiting keeps you here. Patience, with action, takes you there.
When I started patiently, persistently taking action in my own life, things started to change. I made the effort to see the beauty around me every day, and my world became more beautiful. I made the effort to take charge of my daily routine, and my routine got better. I started creating something, building something. I wasn’t waiting for my turn any more, I was taking my turn. And all of a sudden I discovered I had the power to deal with it. Life no longer just happened to me. It was my life. I owned it.
All those jobs I did to keep the wolf from the door taught me something. The whole time I was waiting for my turn I was collecting experiences. I didn’t know it at the time, but those experiences were teaching me how to move forward and take hold of my life. And I wanted to find a way to share those lessons.
So I’ve written a book to share those experiences, to help other people to deal with it. If you’ve ever struggled to find your way, if you’ve ever felt that life is something that happens to you rather than for you, it might help you to take your turn.
The book comes out soon on Kindle and paperback. Sign up to my newsletter and I’ll let you know when it’s published and together we can take our turn, reach for our slice of the pie, and learn to deal with it.