Q&A - The Power of Taking Action

Hello and welcome to today's coaching Q and A session. I am Wendy Greer with learning strategies and mind tracks. And today I wanted to start with a brief.

Topic, a brief discussion of the topic of the importance of taking action. When I started coaching here, short within a year, I think it was of starting here. The Secret book and then the movie by Rhonda Byrne were released and it was based on the Law of Attraction. The basic premise is that you can use the power of positive thinking to achieve anything that you can imagine with complete conviction and belief in it coming to pass. And the three, the three major premises are what you think and feel will determine what you will attract into your life. The Law of Attraction only works when you think in positives, not negative. So you're going to, you're going to look at what you want, not what you don't want. And to manifest your dreams, you must ask, believe and then receive. So the only issue with this was, and I wasn't quite aware what was going on until I took a couple of interesting calls that people were passively affirming, doing exactly what the Secret told them to do, but there was no action step involved. So they were quite frustrated because things weren't manifesting.

Jack Canfield says in Breakthrough to Success and he is where the basic premise of asking and believing and receiving, he's built that into everything he does. The last six letters of attraction are action, A, C, T, I, O, N. And they are a necessary step. And so what, what I started noticing was I was taking an unusual number of calls where people are incredibly frustrated but they seem to be really strong on the affirmations. And I finally connected the dots when I was talking to a gentleman and this one will always stick in my mind. He wanted a Ferrari. And the reason he called in was he was using paraliminals and he was really big on the secret. He just loved, he'd bought, I think he'd done the book and the movie and the Ferrari had not shown up in his driveway yet. And so I said, okay, so tell me what your plan is. You know, what, what's your action steps? What have you figured out what kind of financing you need? You know, have you started a savings account? Have you talked to your financial advisor, if you can move some funds around? Because, oh no, I'm. I was told that if I, if I believed in it and I thought it could come to pass and I had, and I had the affirmations in place, it's going to show up. And I check every morning and it's not. And I. I really had problems not starting to giggle because it was. It just. I mean, I believe in the law of attraction. Like attracts, like. You get more of what you. What you focus on. But to not have an action step in place seems so counterproductive to me. And so it was. We really sort of discussed what it would be like for him to have that Ferrari and why he wanted the Ferrari. And we sort of got into some of the underpinnings of it. And then I did finally talk him into what. Why don't you go test drive one, talk to the dealership, see, you know, what the. What the action steps might be so that you can get yourself on track here. So that was such a blatant example to me of how people can tune into something but not take the next step. You know, I've always understood that the universe rewards action. That has always been something that I've sort of noticed in my life. If I want something, I need to figure out what my plan is and then do something to step toward that. Jack Canfield, we did a really great course with him called Effortless Success that I want to mention. And he says there are two kinds of actions. There are obvious actions which are very pragmatic and inspired actions. And once you start creating those action steps and get clear on what those action steps might be, you start breaking the stuck state, the ice that surrounds you, the feeling of being sort of adrift and not moving forward to what you are looking to achieve. And one of the tools I want to mention is the rule of five from his Effortless success course. We did that with Jack quite a few years ago, and it's a wonderful toolbox. And I refer to it often because Jack is really good at discerning what people do well and then borrowing. But the rule of five, the guideline for that is that you. Each day, you establish five things you are going to do toward your primary goal. And they may be tiny things like, you know, you're going to get the file out and review your notes and see if you're on track. It might be that you're going to make a call about whatever it is you're wanting to do. It could be any number of picky things, or it might be bigger things, but those five steps gradually move you toward what you're seeking to achieve or create or see in your life. And I think there's a couple of key components here, because the guy with the Ferrari was quite passive. And even though he was affirming what he wanted. And.

He kept looking out in his driveway looking for it. He wasn't totally committed because he wasn't doing that action step. He wasn't taking that first step. And often that first step.

Just spontaneously leads to other ones. And those are the second kind of actions that Jack mentions. The obvious actions which. The pragmatic common sense, down to earth and inspired actions, because inspired actions are those. That's when the synchronicities and the spontaneity start happening. I mean, I hear. I have heard some pretty amazing stories of what affirmations can do for you and being totally mentally and spiritually and physically connected with the goal. But it's really important that there's some motion there, that you're not just an observer, that you become a participant. And that's the piece the gentleman with the Ferrari was missing. He was. He was passively observing, looking for that car, but he wasn't doing the common sense things that would bring that into his life. And I've been reading a really interesting author lately. Her name is Carol Osborne. The. The first book I read was Inner Excellence at Work, and I believe that's been out quite a while. But there's a phraseology in there that perfectly sums up what I'm saying here. When you begin to act, the action changes you. As you find resources inside of you that you did not know you had, you make space for a power greater than yourself to become engaged in your life. You are at last fully alive. And I think that's just a perfect summary of what the action step does. It gets you moving. You start looking for ways to make it happen. The rule of five does that as well. Because you're looking for what are the five things I can do that will move me forward? You find these resources inside of you, and you will often, often find resources presenting from outside of you. You know, synchronicities, just the right contact, just the right piece of literature, you know, whatever it is. So that that action component is. Is an enormous piece of what we need to do in order to manifest what we want. And often when people are sort of feeling stuck in the water, I ask them about their action steps. Because if there's no action steps, it's like there's no wind to fill your sails. You can't go anywhere. You're sort of adrift. So that's just a brief spiel on that. In the topics, the index of the topics for specific issues, Action in the parallel accelerator listing and the topics listing that came with your mindtrax app. I think it has about 15 parallel. There are four that I particularly like around this topic. First one, new action generator. New Action Generator really helps you to see what actions you've been taking or if you've been taking any actions and whether they've been productive and then move on to what actions will actually move you forward, what will fill the sale, what will move you forward. As I've said before, the generator parallel are always good when you're stuck. And so if you're feeling stuck, you're not moving toward your goal. New Action Generator would be one I would look at. Fearlessness would be another one that I refer people to. The reason for that is often there is quite a bit of fear around stepping into the new paradigm. Even if, particularly if it's beyond your comfort zone. That's when, if you're working with fearlessness, you're going to find that any self doubts will come up to be looked at. Because if you're trying to do affirmations on top of a belief that you're not worthy or that you don't deserve, or there's a, there's any doubting of your capacities, your skill set, whatever, you know, that skill set may be your action step, that skill set may be what you need next. So fearlessness will help you ferret those out. And I like that parallel lot. Anytime that you're, you're doubting your, your skills, you know, your experience, anytime that there's, there's that component of disbelief. Fearlessness is a good one. Get around to it. A lot of people procrastinate because they don't. Again, it's sort of akin to fearless fear, fear being fearful. If they, if they start on that path, where's that path going to lead them? Do they, are they sure they want to go down that path? Is that path going to be scary? So get around to it. And fearlessness often go hand in hand. And I like self discipline. Self discipline is about following through with consistency and determination. But one of the things I find with the action step component is often people.

It may be that the reason they're not taking the action is that what they're doing is not totally aligned with what they're here to do. So self discipline has some interesting change work that helps you notice what isn't aligned. And then you know, sometimes it's just mildly tweaking a goal or having more of an eagle eye view that puts it in the context of the goal that you're working on. So those are the four that I would definitely suggest.

For this component of living your, you know, fulfilling your dreams and achieving whatever you're seeking to bring into your life. So that is it. On that topic, we only had a few questions this week, so I wanted to address those. Which paralyminals are best for procrastination? When you want to take action, but you don't until the very last minute. A couple things I would ask on that question. Is this happening in all areas? If it's just one area, it may be a stuck state that would be addressed by the generator. Paralyminals, Those are always my first go to when somebody's feeling stuck. And procrastination is sometimes, if it's in a specific area, it could be that you just need to rearrange the history.

You need to shift the.

Paradigm you're operating from. So it might be as you know, I really like the new History generator because it's good for. If you're doubting that what you're going to do is going to be totally beneficial or that you're going to give something up that's currently in your life that you don't want to give up. New History Generator is the one I would go to. If you keep shooting yourself in a foot with a particular behavior of like, overspending when you're trying to save money and build a bank account so there's something you're looking to. To bring into your life physically, then it might be the new behavior generator. So those are some I would consider. If it's in a specific area, you also might try self actualization. Self actualization is really good.

At determining what that life mission, that life purpose might be and whether what you're trying to do is serving that. So again, it's. If you'. If you're feeling like you're just sort of out of alignment and out of kilter somehow, and it's procrastination that's in a. In a more finite area. If you've got. If it's throughout your life, there's a couple things I would look at. Get around to it because get around to it helps you to see, you know, why you're not getting to it. Self discipline, because again, you would see where the values are misaligned. And it might be the letting go, because I'm talking to a lot of people who are seriously overwhelmed. So overcoming overwhelm or the letting go would both be good for that. So that's just a brief addressing of that. Always when you have an issue, go through and see which of the titles are most pertinent and each parallel has a subtitle. The reason parallel work so well is they're so adaptable and you can find the one that fits your particular circumstance. So you know, I don't have enough information here to know why the procrastination is happening, but consider the ones I've talked about and then take, take a look at the. All the titles and see which one seems most pertinent. Had several questions lately about using paraliminals with children. You know, the general recommendation is preteen to teens. I have had people use paraliminals with much younger children and with great effect.

I think the parameters you need to use when you're using them with younger children is make it fun, do it with them and make it like a game. I think children tend to be much more open because they. Paralympos are a strange phenomenon and some people who are very conscious, mind oriented, you know, they, they don't quite believe it and it's mildly irritating and they're not, they're not totally convinced it's workable. Children don't have that doubt. They're totally open. And so for some kids I've. I've had some really interesting stories from children that were on the, on the spectrum that they, they use self esteem supercharger if they're, if they're feeling like they're inadequate at school or belief if they, if they've internalized to such a point that they're, they're. Their confidence has been betrayed by the people that are, that are critiquing and they're getting this feeling of not being okay. I have heard some pretty amazing stories. But again, make it fun, do it with them. I've had several grandparents that have been into paralympicals and have used them with their children. I had one who had a child that had a very aggressive cancer and was undergoing chemo and radiation was just having a terrible time and they used the anxiety free and the perfect health and it made a huge difference in how the treatment went and how the child was adapting to what was going on. So I'm a big believer.

Question about being stuck versus being overwhelmed. Generally when I hear that being stuck is normally in a particular area, overwhelm tends to be everything and anything is too much. My relationships are screwed up, my finances are in disarray, I've lost my spiritual connection. So to me that is overwhelmed. Whereas being stuck generally. And I'm, you know, I mean it could, it could swing to overwhelm. But generally being stuck is a more finite.

Tunneled area. It's like you're between two banks and you can't see anything else. All you see is that little bit in front of you. Whereas Overwhelm is everything around you feels like too much so for being. For being stuck. As I said earlier, I love the generator parallel. They're so great at shifting things. And particularly when you got to push me pull you where your current positives, you seem like you might be compromising those. If you progress into another way of being. If you feel like there's that, I'm leaving this behind. But I. I'm stepping into that and I don't know if that's going to be as good. And I don't want to leave this. You know that that's where New History Generator is my go to.

For being overwhelmed. It's overcoming Overwhelm, which clearly was built for that topic and the letting go. A lot of us, A lot of us don't complete things. And so we, we. We keep one. One of the analogies I've heard is you. You keep picking things up and not quite dealing with them. So you put them in your backpack for later and then you see pick something backpack. And so it's like you've got this loaded backpack and you're dragging yourself down the road. But if you can use Letting Go to either let it go, delegate it, you know, get, decide you're not going to do it or do it, any one of those will start relieving the load. So the letting go or the fresh start which always, always reminds you that every day is an Every day is a new day. Every moment is a new moment. And the potential is always there to change. It's your choice. It's always your choice. So that is it for today. Clearly people are doing really well with the parallel because there. There weren't many questions. This time I'd like to wind up with a quotation from Eknath Ishwaran. He wrote. I read several of his books and actually I pulled this one out off my shelf and I'm going to reread this. It's Finding balance in a Hurried world. It's called Take youe Time. But he wrote another book that God made makes the rivers to flow. But this summarizes what I was just talking about. This might be a topic for.

Another little Q and A session. A lead in this is directly from Eknath. Activity is no achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun. And to me that's such a nice distillation of what's going on for a lot of people right now. We have so many balls in the air, so many things going on. We're in action, but we're not. It's not focused action. It's not, it's not, you know, it's not the, the, the, the rule of five actions from Jack Campbell where you're focused on a goal and you're doing five things. It's. You're doing a bit of this, bit of that, bit of the, bit of the other and we're spinning like tops. So take your time. Would be a good book to. A good resource to, to visit. But again, activity is no achievement. It is not enough to rush about beginning a lot of things and keeping busy. A well spent life is one that rounds out what it has begun. And you know, that involves too congratulating yourself for your successes, you know, finishing it, acknowledging and then, and then moving forward. So, all right, that is it for this time. We all send you lots of love, all of us here at Learning Strategies and Mind Tracks and we'll see you next month. You take care.