Despite your best intentions, sometimes the reason why you don’t take action once you’ve set goals is that you begin to rationalize with yourself. This occurs when the thought, “Hey, things aren’t so bad,” comes up in place of your taking action.

• If you’re way overweight, you convince yourself, at least temporarily, that you’re happy at this weight.
• If you’re utterly alone, you dwell on the moments here and there where being alone has it’s advantages.
• If you’re 52-years-old and you have no real savings, you rationalize that many of other people are in the same boat, or that you’re about to get into your prime earning years.

No One is Immune

Everyone is subject to rationalization at one time or another. However, if excessive rationalizing keeps you from taking the action that would enable you to go from where you are to where you want to be, perhaps it’s time to reconstruct your self talk:

“I’m overweight, I’ve been overweight for years, and I can’t stand it. I choose to reach my target weight. “I’m alone, utterly and miserably alone, and I want very much to have a partner.” I choose to join a singles club. “I have no savings, nothing to show for myself for all these years, and I choose to save $10,000 by June 30.”

In each of the above situations, as well as any others you can imagine, the quickest road away from rationalizing is to take action.

Sign up at a health club today, and start going regularly. Pick up the phone and join an organization where you’re likely to meet other singles whom you are attracted to, and start attending at the next meeting. Take $20 out of your wallet or whatever money you have hanging around, drive down to the bank and make a deposit. Then, make another one next week, and next week and the week after that.

A Paralyzing Rationalization: “I Get No Breaks”

There’s an old expression that says, “Don’t talk about luck in the company of self-made people. People who set and reach goals appreciate any luck they receive along the way but largely they chart their own course.”

Often you hear about or read about this person or that one who says they never got any breaks. Some people think the deck is totally stacked against them when it comes to opportunities. These kinds of claims always confound me.

• If you choose to engage in academic excellence, who on this earth can stop you?
• If you set your sights on being a master in using word processing software to the point where you score the highest on any test administered to those in your job classification, who in particular can stand in your way?
• If choose to be a master at any other vocation, who but yourself will be your obstacle?

Are you telling me that somebody is coming by your house at night, or your office in the morning, and pulling the plug just as you were about to crack the books and delve more deeply into your subject area? Are you saying that the library is not open in your town? Are you saying that you literally lack the funds to make the minimal investments needed to get started? Are you saying that there is no one else on a planet of six billion people who shares your goal and with whom you may team up?

The Hardship of Better Living

As hard as it may be to proceed month after month, year after year without getting what you want, are you willing to accept the hardship of making a better life for yourself? If not, please don’t feel as if I’m picking on you. You are, however, simply part of the broad masses of society who, effectively, accept their lot in life and vie for the table scraps that might fall their way.

If you are willing to accept the challenge of making a better life, and if you are willing to get into action, the outcome of your quest generally is up to you. If you make it all the way, no one will deny you your place when you step into the winner’s circle.

Action is Invigorating Planning is important. Plotting is important. Visualizing is important. Taking action is essential.

Taking action separates the men from the boys, the girls from the women, the pencil pushers from the doers.

It’s lamentable, but every time the federal government in Washington seemingly wants to take action in some critical area, the first thing they do is pay a ton of taxpayers’ monies for a bevy of studies, the majority of which no one reads or takes seriously. If there’s some new bridge to be constructed or some new process to be devised, it seems that there’s far more attention paid to theories on how to build a bridge or engage in the process, than there is interest in actually having the bridge built or the process perfected and completed.

Paralysis of Analysis

This proclivity to study an issue to death has put a strangle hold on what started out as honorable pursuits.

Don’t be caught in your tracks because of the all too easy tendency to slip into rationalization, or to engage in the paralysis by analysis. Spend some time carefully assessing the situation; spend more time taking action.

You Will Err

If you’re afraid of making mistakes, here’s an insight for you: You will make mistakes. That is not a reason not to proceed. Ask world champion goal achievers, and they’ll tell you the way to succeed in life is to fail often, learn from your setbacks, and move on.

They don’t mean to imply that you actively go out and seek to fail. Rather, you make a lot of attempts to succeed, and in doing so end up encountering failure, perhaps a little more often than you care to.

There’s an old adage that says, “It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Similarly: “It is better to have attempted something and failed, than never to have attempted it.”

Here’s a provoking thought: What will you do that’s different this time to ensure that you reach the goals that you set for yourself?

The answer to this question differs from person to person. For you, it might involve:

• Sharing your plans with a significant other.
• Rearranging your room, home, office, car or other vital spaces.
• Purchasing goal enhancing tools such as a calendar or planning software.
• Arranging a meeting.
• Making important phone calls.
• Taking off for a day to rest.
• Engaging in an extended mediation.
• Admitting to yourself that you don’t know what you’re going to do but are committed to taking action that transcends what you’ve done before.

May the most for which you strive, be the least that you achieve.