Why People Don’t Take Action
Last week we explored how unaddressed fear can dominate our lives and lead us down the path of mediocrity and destruction.
This week, let’s look at why people don’t take action to overcome their fears.
“You cannot cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water.” ~ Rabindranath Tagore
Action has enormous power, action is magical, action always delivers results.
Action Cures Fear
So if this is true, why don’t people take action and eliminate their fears ?
There are five key reasons driving this behavior:
1. Lack of Awareness
Most people are not even aware of their fears. They live a life blissfully unaware of their true potential and the fears that hold them from achieving more.
Their motto in life is like the Rolling Stones’ song “You can’t always get what you want,” and they’ve resigned themselves to be fine with it. Cultural and social conditioning, too, do their bit to keep them believing their own lie.
2. Lack of Motivation
These are people who have had some kind of awakening, they have seen some light at the end of the tunnel, they feel they can face their fears and also know how to a certain degree but lack the motivation, the mental strength to pursue that line of thought and convert it into consistent, persistent, tangible action.
They display bursts of unplanned, incoherent, disjointed, pointless activity from time to time but never find the motivation to be persistent and consistent in their actions.
3. Lack of Responsibility
They are the adult children. They are always waiting for something to happen that will automatically change their lives for the better. They are waiting for a miracle, a messiah to descend and take away all their fears.
They can’t accept that change is in their hands, at the mercy of their actions. For them it has to be more complex than it seems else it cannot be true.
4. Lack of Belief
This set of people are the ‘What if people’. Taking action is not possible for them because they fear themselves.
What if it goes wrong, what if this is not the right way, what if someone laughs , what if the fear still remains after taking action, what if nothing changes, what if, what if, what if….
Nothing risked, nothing lost is their way of justifying their lack of self belief and inaction.
5. Lack of Purpose
This group lacks clarity, vision, purpose and just drifts along. They are aware, motivated, responsible to a certain extent, enjoy reasonably strong self belief, yet do not take action to overcome their fears.
That’s because the ‘why’ of taking action is not important enough for them. They can’t see the tremendous benefits emerging from persistent, consistent focused action.
“Anywhere the wind blows, doesn’t really matter to me….” would be an apt bumper sticker for them.
Point to ponder: Do you exhibit one or more of these characteristics?
