It’s ‘true confession’ time. We know that making ourselves vulnerable can feel a little risky. But here goes. After writing a weekly column for over six years, it’s easy to get stuck and ask ourselves, “What could we write about this week that would be helpful?” We wanted to get “unstuck.” We realized that’s it – everyone gets stuck at times. So, it could be very helpful to look at some ways to get unstuck and move forward.

The first way got us remembering wise words from our parents, and maybe you remember hearing these words, too – “Starting is half done.” You mean to say that sometimes what it takes to get something done is to start doing it? Yup! It’s like that principle of Sir Isaac Newton that we learned in science class – an object in motion, tends to stay in motion. And the opposite is true – an object at rest, tends to stay at rest.

We got ‘in motion’ and started to write what was on our minds. Ideas came to us which reinforced the importance of just starting and taking some action. Thought leader Simon Sinek puts it this way, “Dream big, start small, but most of all start.”

Mel Robbins is a person who understood how difficult it can be to overcome procrastination and act on what we need to do to become successful. Robbins was an attorney who became a popular self-help author. She wrote a best-selling book called, The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work and Confidence with Everyday Courage. In her words, this is how the rule works. “The 5 Second Rule is simple. If you have an instinct to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds, or your brain will kill it. When you feel yourself hesitate before doing something that you know you should do, count 5-4-3-2-1-GO and move towards action.”

We’re sure you can think of times in your past where you felt an urge to act on a thought but hesitated a little too long and the opportunity passed. Perhaps you were inspired to speak up at a meeting, or introduce yourself to someone, but hesitated a few seconds and your fear stepped in to “kill it”. Afterward you blame yourself for not acting when you had the urge, and the opportunity. Or possibly the alarm goes off in the morning, you know you should get up, but you keep hitting the snooze button. Robbins says the way to force yourself to act in a situation like that is to count backwards from 5 and spring out of bed when you reach 0.

I, Doug, can relate to this example. My goal is to run each morning. I know that when the alarm goes off, the longer I hesitate to get up and put on my running shoes, the greater the chance that a run won’t happen that morning. But once I act by getting out of bed AND putting on my running shoes, it WILL happen.

I, Lynn, have another way to take action. I have an accountability partner who helps me stay motivated to act and exercise. In speaking about our tendency to not act, Mark Twain had a clever twist on a familiar phrase, “Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often.” In other words, we often talk more about taking action, than actually taking action.

It’s easy to settle into our routines that keep us from improving ourselves. Change can be scary. It’s not easy to face the unknown and step out of our comfort zone by trying something new. We can risk feeling like a failure if we don’t succeed. Fear can be a very powerful force to keep us from changing. Recently we had a conversation with a reader of our column. He mentioned how he was struck by a quote by Jack Canfield that we shared in a previous column – “Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”

Yes, we need to face our fears to be able to take action. Abraham Maslow, one of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century and known for his “Hierarchy of Needs” said, “You will either step forward into action or you will step back into safety.”

How about you? Do you find yourself stepping forward into action or stepping back into safety? Kudos to you if you are an action-taker. If you find yourself hesitating when opportunities arise, consider the words of Zig Ziglar, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” And remember, starting is half done!

Chanhassen MN residents, Doug and Lynn Nodland are success coaches and owners of The Balance Center in Excelsior. Contact them at WeCare@TheBalanceCenter.com

© Doug and Lynn Nodland 2023 Articles and videos may be shared in their entirety with attribution.