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| When thoughts become things |
We've all heard the saying that "talk is cheap." We've listened to it so often it's become a cliche. Like most cliches, the law of familiarity has set in and keeps us from actually absorbing the phrase's true meaning. We've grown so tired of hearing it that we don't listen to it anymore. The fact remains that talk is cheap. It is easy to talk about things, and most people do. Most people talk about a great game regularly. However, the difference in people is not in what they say they will do but in what they do.
We don't judge people by what they say but rather by what they do. We believe people by their behavior and by their actions. This is because deep down inside, we all know that words have no real power to create anything in themselves. It is only when the words are backed up by action that you have the power to make any actual results. The ironic thing is that although most of us know this, we get caught up in accumulating knowledge. We learn something and get interested in the results we think the information can produce. In pursuing the results, we often confuse it with getting more information, so we accumulate tons of information and knowledge without having the impact we wanted in the first place.
The good fruit of knowledge is action. Gaining knowledge can make us feel more capable, but knowledge itself will not produce our desired results. One of the biggest prevalent myths in the information age is the notion that knowledge is power. Knowledge is not power. It is only potential power. What you do with what you know is where the real power is. The reality of the world we live in is that information on almost anything is freely available to anyone, quite literally at the push of a button. The difference in people comes in what they have done differently from someone else with the same information.
Even though you have all the information at your fingertips, the most valuable resource you have to create results in your life is your ability to take action. An action always produces a result. When you take action, you bring an idea into effect and use your will to do something to achieve a specific purpose. When you do this, you create in the true sense of the word as you turn an idea into reality; you express something internal on the outside. Every action is a cause set in motion, and for every reason, there is an effect, and it is the effects or results that we are all interested in. You don't want to know that you can be wealthy. You want to experience it by seeing and touching it, and the absolute satisfaction comes from turning your ideas into reality.
There is a big difference between knowing what to do and doing what you know. Most people know what to do to make their lives work but knowing isn't enough. We must act and use what we know. Something intangible happens when you take action on an idea. You set in motion a series of events that you don't always know the full consequences of. Like throwing a stone in a pond, the ripple effect of the water affects the whole pond and moves everything that is in or on the pond. This illustrates how a single action can significantly impact even if you aren't always aware of it. On a more practical and tangible level, you start getting feedback from your efforts, and you learn things that you can only know as a result of your actions. These are things you cannot learn from merely listening to others or reading books.
Think of your knowledge and ideas as an elastic band. It can be stretched, but you are not using it for its actual purpose until and unless you try it. Information is usually something external. When you learn it, you transform it into knowledge, and when you act on it, it becomes part of your life. Knowing isn't enough. To truly experience anything in life, you must take action. We all want to feel, and this only comes from engaging "all of you" – by engaging all of your senses to experience the fullness of life in all its abundance.
It doesn't take many ideas to change something in your life. Neither does it take a complicated picture. It takes ideas that you can use and act upon to give you what you want. Rarely is it the information or ideas you want as it is almost always only the means to an end? You genuinely wish for results, and this will only come from using what you know. Don't get caught in the flood of information and knowledge. Start to focus your mind on the action and on applying ideas instead of accumulating them. Slowly feed yourself more information and knowledge, but let your actions be your ultimate guide. After all, it is not what you say you will do but what you do that will determine the quality of your life and what you achieve or fail to achieve.
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