Taking Action

They say many an honest word is said in jest. You might have seen the humorous lockdown meme - “After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house but lacking the time, this week I discovered that wasn’t the reason.”

This eloquently captures a common occurrence for most of us. We know there are things we could or should do, we procrastinate, we put them off. We do the urgent instead of the important.

Our days fill up and those things never get done. Sometimes there are very good reasons. Some jobs are not worth starting if you don’t have the space to commit. It’s a pain to dig all your tools out of the back of the garage and start measuring up only to be interrupted for something else.

Time was often the reason for putting off lots of things – we didn’t have enough of it. However, like the meme, some of us now have the time but we still don’t do it. If time wasn’t the factor maybe it's motivation. If only we had enough motivation to get started and stick at it. We act like motivation is the missing ingredient – we can be inspired enough to achieve.

Maybe it’s a knowledge gap. I want to but I’m not sure if I know-how. This could be difficult. If I follow the right person or watch the right YouTube video, perhaps I will feel confident enough to get going. Is it ability – I don’t think I can do this? I’m not clever, patient, detailed, experienced, fit, fill in the gap… enough to do this.

There is another school of thought. It says action is the best form of motivation. It says action is the key ingredient of success. Have you seen the clip of the army guy talking about why you should make your bed each day? He’s really saying start with small steps and the rest will follow. I had a boss that used to say, ‘how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.’ What can you do today? How about writing a to-do list, maybe setting some goals for this week and then this month and the rest of 2021. Then go for a walk and get the blood flowing. It’s all legal and it’s good for you.

There are actions you can take from reading this edition of The Loop. Sign a petition, apply for a COVID-19 or PBA subsidy, book a webinar and upskill. Do one now, then do another.

After all is said and done, it’s not what you know, or thought about, or planned that matters. It’s what you did.

Have fun doing.

Rupert Ross, PBA President