Action And Confidence Are Closely Related — How To Get Confident Enough To Action!

I used to be focused on analysis — until I realized action is better!

Analysis was my preferred “action”!

I didn’t want to fail.

Why, I didn’t want to risk failing is more accurate.

Thus I didn’t even enter the race. Sure, if I did enter the race I could win. But more importantly, I could lose. And the scare of that was too much for me to handle. Too much of a risk, to even enter the competition.

An example of this was when I was around 10 years old. Me and my friends loved downhill skiing, we skied the entire season for a few years. My friends competed in the local club races, but I did not.

I don’t remember what reason I quoted at the time, as to why I didn’t want to join those races. Today it is obvious to me that the reason was that I was afraid to lose.

Imagine that! Losing against my friends. That would have been a horrid experience for me at the time.

So that was the person I was as a 10-year-old. And it was also the type of person I grew up to be as a young adult.

I turned away from action, from taking on risk. From showing who I was, and risking losing. I instead turned to analysis. Analysis of all aspects. My view on analysis was that if my analysis is good enough I win.

I wanted to find that perfect way of analyzing stuff, in my case the financial markets. That was where I decided that I could win. Because there I didn’t have to do too much action. All I had to do was to analyze and then place my bets.

Things didn’t work out as I had planned. Mostly because I never accepted the risk of losses. Which is a crucial part of it when dabbling in the financial markets. What stopped me from winning was not accepting to lose. It is paradoxical but true.

Action is the best way to learn!

When we want to learn something we should action it. Instead of studying it or reading about it.

A halfway step towards “doing it” is to teach others about it. Teaching something to someone else is a great way to learn. Teaching someone else about it provides so much more clarity than reading about it. Or listening to a teacher lecturing on the subject.

The most effective way of learning is to apply the knowledge in real-life situations. Then and only then do we get the world’s feedback on what we are trying to learn about. And that feedback is very valuable. It makes us develop the knowledge iteratively.

The feedback that the world provides us, we use to change the way we apply what we know. We change it to something that is better suited to the practical situation. This way we move forward. Testing, developing our knowledge. Serving the needs of the world in a better way.

What value does our learning have if it doesn’t cater to fixing real-world issues? Actioning based on our current knowledge is the only way to see if our knowledge holds water, or “is correct”. And the best way to learn about how the world works.

Daring to “Just Do It”

I could have gone on to live the rest of my life as an “analyzer”. Feeling that if I apply my great analysis skills in real-life situations, I would make it.

I would have stayed in my safe ivory tower of self-righteousness. And my sense of security would be based on not taking any risks.

But I changed.

Why?

Because I learned what I am. I am consciousness. I am impersonal, and I am always pristine. I am total acceptance of all outcomes. Without any preferencing between “good” or “bad”.

I started practicing living my life as what I am, consciousness. I started applying those characteristics in everyday situations. And over time I started to feel that reality.

What that meant was that I was no longer so affected by the conditions of my life. Of if something was a success or a failure. In reality, risk no longer seemed so scary to take on.

I became more free. I could start taking risks, thus why I could start doing more action. Without all that analyzing, without being “sure” of the outcome.

And that is why I am writing here now;

Because I am not so afraid.

It is no longer so important to me if I win, or if I lose.

Why is that?

Again, because I understand and feel myself to be impersonal being. My person is someone the real me is aware of. But the real me no longer values itself off of what other people feel about my person. I am before all that, and I cannot be touched.

So now I can action. Because I am ok to make mistakes, to fail even. I can be transparent with what I do. I can show weakness. Because I am not weak.

Nothing can be taken away from me, nothing can be added to me. I am the same no matter the circumstances.

And thus I feel safe enough to action. Because it is a celebration of life to action, to show myself off to the world completely.

Not because I want an ego boost. But because dancing as myself in an unconstricted dance with the world is fun. I want to celebrate life and happiness through my actions.

And — I also learn a whole lot more, and faster, with this attitude of courage. Because I dare to fully experience the world. Previously I had all those defenses shielding the impact. Thus limiting my world.

Conclusions — what it takes to be a doer!

So if you want to shift from analysis paralysis to action, consider the following;

1. If you act rather than analyze you learn a lot faster. More completely, and more applicable to real-world demands. A middle step is to teach.
2. To be a doer you should be ok to lose. Action should be iterative — you lose, fine — you do it again better next time.
3. To be ok to lose you should lose your ego.
4. The way to lose your ego is to understand that you are impersonal consciousness. You are everyone and everything.
5. Study what that implies, live like that. Feel the change.
6. Do lots of fun action — not to gain happiness or confidence — but to celebrate this new reality.

Thanks for reading — please like and comment — tell me your views on the above. Please follow me if you want to read more on similar topics.