Inaction: The Silent Killer Of Your Hopes And Dreams

I'd like to talk to you about something important: the brutal cost of inaction when it comes to improving yourself and living a life that you're proud of. You know you SHOULD improve yourself, but don't because the path less traveled seems much more "risky". 
Well, I have news for you:

"Safe is risky..."

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The above quote by Seth Godin is a fantastic guiding light for action in your life. I have this quote on the inside cover of my notebook that is always on my person. It's a mantra, a fucking way of life.

Why?

Because safety = inaction.

Let's dive into that equation in a second, but first: here's what you're going to learn in this post...

1. The psychological reason why we don't take action when it comes to improving ourselves.
2. The implications and repercussions NOT taking action can have on the rest of our lives.
3. The action to start taking today to live a better tomorrow.

Why We Crave Safety (and Inaction)

When you woke up 9,000 years ago on the prehistorical savannah, what was the NUMBER ONE thing on your mind?

Survival.

Don't get eaten. 

What was that noise behind that bush? 

Have to get home to the tribe before dark.

Must survive....

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"If we define risk as the likelihood of an irreversible negative outcome, inaction is the greatest risk of all."

                          -Tim Ferriss

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"To keep our ancestors alive, Mother Nature evolved a brain that routinely tricked them into making three mistakes: overestimating threats, underestimating opportunities, and underestimating resources (for dealing with threats and fulfilling opportunities). This is a great way to pass on gene copies, but a lousy way to promote quality of life."

This survival mindset served us well for millennia, we're all here aren't we?

Humans have developed something called the Negativity bias, which is the psychological phenomenon by which humans pay more attention to and give more weight to negative rather than positive experiences or other kinds of information.

Neuropsychologist Ph.D. Rick Hanson sums the negativity bias up perfectly:

What Happens When We Don't Take Action:

Taking action to improve yourself is the MOST important thing that you can ever do.

Think about this: We take YEARS of schooling to learn all sorts of things, we learn to tie our shoes, walk, talk, drive. 

How often do we spend time becoming better socially, romantically, physically, and mentally?

Almost never. Why in the HELL would we leave those parts of our lives up to chance?!

It's harsh, but how we came out of the box isn't good enough. We must improve. We learn most skills in a deliberate way. Why not learn skills like how to have a fantastic date every time, how stop negative self talk, or how to dress and carry yourself so that you can convey to others that you're deserving of their respect?

If you keep putting this off, the worst case scenario is that you wake up in ten years and you're still no closer to obtaining what you want in life because you decided to not take action, or you're just waiting and will "try" to "figure it out" on your own. The truth is: this worst case scenario is LIKELY.

Put simply: If you wait to improve yourself another day, week, month, year, or decade, you're doing yourself a major disservice. When you keep doing what you've always done, you're going to get what you've always gotten.

I'm going to challenge you to stop putting off some of the most important growing you'll ever do as a person.

It's called "taking action" because you actually have to "take" it. (Click To Tweet)

What have you been putting off? Let me know in the comments.