There Are Not Many Reasons to Act — So We Have to Work Hard to Find Them

There are many reasons not to act. Stay where you are. Play safe. Do it tomorrow. Ignore it. Get distracted by something easier.

Each of these is available at any moment, for almost anything. They ask nothing of us and they cost nothing today.

Set against them, the reasons to act are few. When we actually look for what makes us move, it comes down to four things: something is urgent, something is important, we have made a commitment, or we carry a responsibility. That’s the whole list. Everything else is a version of staying put.

For the things that matter, action is everything. With action we move forward, learn, fail, improve, refine, transform. Without it, none of that happens — we simply stay the same, at the same standard, facing the same problems, for as long as we choose comfort over movement.

It is tempting to play safe and stay where we are. Only action is going to shape our character. Not the plan for it, not the intention to eventually get to it — the doing of it.

The narratives we build to avoid it. We may find, and support, a story of the world conspiring against us. It shows up as fear of embarrassment and failure. Resistance to change. Playing it safe and calling it prudence. Closing our eyes and simply accepting the problems we already know are there.

Each one of these feels reasonable on its own. Together, they only push us backwards.

Dropping our guard, and taking off our armour, and facing the world as it actually is — that is what makes us shine. Not the armour. The willingness to be seen without it.

There are not many reasons to act. So instead of waiting for one to arrive, we have to work hard and hunt for them, and act for the actions that matter.

The four reasons are sitting somewhere in front of us right now — urgent, important, a commitment, a responsibility. The question is not whether they exist. It’s how long we’re willing to look away from the one we’ve already found.