If You Want To End Up Having Done Lots Of Things…

In this article I’m looking at another of my quote images, and with this one I wasn’t quite sure where to start…

I wasn’t sure whether to make it really short and snappy, or one of the longer wordier ones. I wasn’t sure, but I started, and I got there in the end!

If you want to to end up having done lots of things, the thing you need to start is lots of doing.

If I asked you to look at different areas of life – health, wealth, relationships, career, lifestyle – and asked you if you had done all that you wanted in those areas, you might well say ‘no.’

Yes, it’s possible that you might say ‘yes’, in which case great, but I’d doubt that would be for everything in all the areas.

The majority of people, and I include myself I this, would probably say that there are still lots of things they’d like to do. It follows then, that in the future we’d like to be looking back having got those things done.

All well and good, but the gap between that future and the here and now is…the doing!

Those things that we want to have done will not get done by themselves, they won’t happen by us doing nothing. Of course the one thing that absolutely *will* happen without us doing anything is the passing of that time.

The time will tick relentlessly on. The gap between the present and that future we imagine full of memories, is getting smaller, and it’s getting smaller all the time. The future will then *become* the present, and if our actions stay as they are, we won’t be looking back at all the things we’ve done – we’ll be looking back instead at all the things we didn’t do.

We’ll be looking back and wondering why we didn’t do them if it was something we’d wanted to. We’ll be asking ‘What happened? Why didn’t we do them?’

Good questions! Sad questions if we ask them in that future situation, but powerful questions if we ask them right now, so let’s get asking..!

These things that we want to have done, are not getting done quite simply because we’re not taking action, we’re not doing anything about them. The next question then becomes the real humdinger – WHY aren’t we doing them?

At this point, it’s worth me saying that I understand that many people are indeed doing things. They’re taking action towards the doing of those things on their list, it’s just they haven’t come to fruition yet. As I said previously, that’s great, and it should be continued, but my focus is on the areas and goals we’re *not* taking action towards.

So having said that, back to that key question – why not?

Reasons are many and varied for this – it could be because we don’t have the time, or we can’t afford it. It could be because others don’t allow us to, or we think we’re not good enough.

Maybe it’s because we’re worried about the challenges of it, or the changes it might bring. Or, it could be none of those, and that we think we’ll get round to doing it ‘sometime’, or that it will happen if we just think about it hard enough.

Hmm.

That’s a whole lot of reasons! It’s a selection box of reasons that might be interchanged for all the lack of action in our lives. I cover the cause of those reasons and the solutions in other content, but for this article I’m going with a general broad brush stroke of a reason, which is a foundation behind all progress, and certainly pertinent to the point of this article…

You just need to decide to do it!

Is it as simple as that? Well, it’s clear that taking action can bring challenges and difficulties, but it’s also clear that it creates momentum – it moves us towards getting things done!

If you want to end up having travelled to lots of places, decide on the next place and act towards it.
If you want to end up having done lots of hobbies, decide on the next and act towards it.
If you want to end up having made lots of friends, decide on how to make new ones and act towards it.

You can see the pattern! If you want to end up having done (XXX) then decide on the next (XXX) and act towards (XXX)!

I often talk about a goal achievement formula, and it certainly works when explaining the point here!

As with any good formula, it can be seen from the opposite direction too – if you don’t act towards (XXX) you won’t end up having done (XXX), and that’s where the choice comes in.

Your choice.

It’s your choice. Other people might think or say that they have the choice, but whether you allow yourself you to be influenced by that, well yes you’ve guessed it, that’s your choice too.

If you choose to not take action, if you choose to leave it to ‘sometime’, that’s fine, as long as you accept that you’ll have a future looking back at what you let pass by.

I’d suggest it’s better to work towards that future of looking back at having done lots, enjoying the journey along the way. So, look to those areas of life, health wealth, relationships, lifestyle, career, and those things you want end up having done. Are you taking action? If so, great, press on, but if not, then now’s the time to start, and it starts…with lots of doing.