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How often do you stop yourself from taking action because you aren't sure you have the right path?  How often does self-doubt cause you to freeze? Most of us are conditioned to believe that it isn't okay to make a mistake and do something "wrong".  We have learned to fear how we might feel, how we would look or what other people might think.

However, this attitude is limiting. One of the primary characteristics of high achievers is an extreme action orientation.  By probability alone, taking enough action will eventually lead to some positive results.  Conversely, inaction will guarantee failure.

"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - Wayne Gretzky

Action Cultivates Self-Trust

The foundation of feeling effective and in control of your life is trust in yourself.  However, self-trust is a precious quality that lies underdeveloped in many of us.  Inaction can reinforce this lack of self-trust. 

When you consistently refuse to take action because you are afraid of doing something wrong, you build the habit of self-doubt.  This doubt reinforces itself.  The doubt reinforces inaction and then the inaction reinforces the doubt.  This creates a negative downward spiral.

On the other hand, when you have uncertainty (and there is always some level of uncertainty) and act in spite of it, you cultivate self-trust.  Even when your action is incorrect, it can still reinforce self-trust (provided you don`t beat yourself up over your mistakes).  As your self-trust rises, you are willing to take action in face of greater uncertainty which creates a positive upward spiral. 

Over the long term, the growing trust in yourself far outweighs any short-term results you may or may not get.

Doing the Wrong Thing Has Little Downside

Failure, in most endeavours, has very few, if any, negative consequences.  Most of the time, if you do something wrong, it doesn't really matter.

Now, if you're designing a $100 million building that will house thousands of people, it better be designed well.  However, in most areas in our lives, failure has little downside.

For example, if you want to ask someone out, the downside is he or she says no. If that happens, you may feel a little rejected.  Aside from that, nothing bad actually happened.  There are no permanent negative consequences.  Or let`s say you want to take up a new sport but you`re unsure whether you will enjoy it.  Instead of doing nothing because you are uncertain, you can simply try it out for a while.  If it`s not for you, all it cost you was some time.

 Often, the worst case scenario for incorrect action is a negative emotion.  The practical consequences are very minimal.  You can work with these emotions by using one of the methods in the article, 3 Easy Ways to Change Your Emotional State Instantly.

Inaction Fosters Inaction; Action Fosters Action

Inaction and action both have their respective momentums.  We've all had days where we start out lazy and unproductive.  We set the tone for the day and create negative momentum.  It's natural for the day to turn into a waste where we neither have a lot of fun nor do we accomplish anything meaningful.

Consider how this habit might compound over time.  A week where you take very little action can easily turn into two weeks.  This can turn into a month and then a year. Before long, you've reached a place where, on a daily basis, you are only doing enough to get by.

Conversely, let's say you take action early in the morning.  You might go for a run just after your wake up.  Since you've had a productive beginning to the day, you think about what else you can accomplish.  So instead of watching the television, you decide to read for a little while. Then you feel motivated to put forth an extra effort at work during the day.  When you come home, instead of sitting in front of the television, you take the time to do something that relaxes and rejuvenates you.

Action Provides Quick Reality-Based Feedback

It`s easy to get caught in the trap of overanalyzing.  We can get stuck in over-planning and under-acting. 

Taking action, unlike judging based on mental models, provides valuable feedback that is more accurate than any model you can construct.  If you`re interested starting a blog, you can mull it over for months at a time or you can set up a blog in a few minutes.  Try out blogging for a few weeks and see if it`s something you enjoy. 

It could turn out that starting a blog was the wrong thing to do.  However, the only way to find out is by actually doing it.  With inaction you learn nothing, with action you learn whether your initial judgment was right or wrong..

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Where in your life are you hesitating and refusing to take action?   Where could you do something right now and learn something whether it turns out to be right or wrong?  Commit to taking some action you`ve been hesitating to take and learn from the result.