From Thinking and Talking to Being and Doing
In my publishing days I almost always found that meeting someone for the first time would elicit a comment along the lines of, “I’ve been thinking about writing a book for years…”
They’d proceed to tell me roughly what it would be about and then ask for my professional view of their ideas.
I imagine doctors and professionals in many other fields have a similar experience!
Practical and Emotional
This scenario still occurs in my life today, and when I ask people why they haven’t moved beyond the ideas stage yet, a whole host of reasons flood out including:
- Practical considerations such as being too busy, not getting around to it, waiting till the children have grown up, seeing it as a retirement project… and/or
- Emotional factors like lacking in confidence and self-belief or not believing they have anything worthwhile to share that anyone would be interested in reading, and more.
There are endless variations on these themes, and they’re virtually ALL forms of resistance.
To Completion and Beyond
The same principle applies to talking and thinking about becoming self-employed, starting a business, exploring creativity, doing an evening class or taking the trip of a lifetime.
A significant proportion of those who dare to dream falter when it comes to crossing the threshold of applying what they know and taking action consistently to see tangible results.
The bottom line is that plenty of people think and talk about their ideas yet fall short of following through to completion and beyond.
Transforming the Dream
So what does it take to make the shift from thinking and talking to being and doing?
The answer could undoubtedly fill volumes covering all the contributing factors relating to conditioned patterns of limiting beliefs and behaviour compounded by the challenging stuff of life.
However, in my experience, three significant keys working seamlessly together have the power to unlock the door to transforming dreams of any kind into reality:
1. Awareness is always the starting point. If you’re not aware that you’re caught in the clutches of your inner critic, for example, you’ve no chance of setting yourself free.
Even more importantly, re-orienting your attention away from the trance of thinking and into the space of pure awareness releases you from the limitations of your conditioned mind and leads you to discover the unlimited potential of awakened being.
2. Embodiment begins with the journey from head to heart and continues with ever-deepening access to the innate intelligence and wisdom of the body.
Intellectual understanding will only take you so far. Learning to feel your way in to what’s genuinely important in the core of your being rather than thinking about what your priorities ought to be opens the way for you to show up and walk your talk.
3. Action occurs when you apply your ideas through finding the courage to take one small step towards your dreams each day.
It flows effortlessly when you cultivate awareness and develop your feeling sense to embody your insights; yet it still requires you to overcome your inertia, release your resistance, be prepared to learn from experience and just do it!
As the inspiring creator of 5Rhythms dance Gabrielle Roth once said, “If you don’t do your dance, who will?”
How do you make the transition from talking and thinking to being and doing? Please share your comments and experience below. Thank you!
Further Resources
If you’d like some intuitive guidance and support to shift from thinking and talking into being and doing to start the new year the way you mean to go on, check out my brand new Conscious Writing Quantum Leap – 3 Month Individual Coaching Package. Read more here.
THIS IS IT !!!
the best advice in a savory succulent sassy nutshell ✌⚘⚘Happy Hollerdaze are over. It’s a New Year dawning!✌⚘⚘
Thank you Zo!!
I think your one small step per day is very important, since it builds on-going engagement.
It is also good to add to this a major effort from time to time whereby a whole day is set aside for work. I think this is personally strengthening, since it gives a great personal boost if achieved.There is power in looking back at a solid body of work achieved from such commitment.
Yes indeed, thanks for adding the point about building on-going engagement as it’s absolutely case.
I also agree wholeheartedly about adding the regular small steps to longers periods of “major effort”; what I call immersion time. In my experience, the reality is that you need both for any project of substance, and I’ve certainly found it inspiring to review the solid body of work created through commitment to skilfull being and doing.
Great comments Peter, thank you.
Excellent advice, perfect for the New Year. What struck a chord with me was Embodiment, tapping into the innate intelligence and wisdom of the body, which I am endeavouring to do. Spot on, as usual.
Thank you Daphne. I appreciate you mentioning that Embodiment struck a chord with you. Over the last few years it has become increasingly clear to me just how important this is so I’ll undoubtedly write more on it in the future. Thanks for your comment, as usual 🙂