“Dead Batteries” Will Trap You in a CYCLE of INACTION
“When habitual, limited THINK-ing activates corrosive FEEL-ings and limits your DO-ing, you can easily and unknowingly get stuck in a CYCLE of INACTION.”
These are the words from a recent post where I told you I’d expound on their meaning… and now, here we are,
You wake up, full of spit and vinegar. You’re ready to take on the world, build the next mousetrap, write the next bestseller, or as Larry the Cable Guy used to say, ready to, “Git er done!” Nothing’s going to get in your way. This time it’s for real.
“Nothing happens unless first we dream.” Carl Sandberg.
But, “Dreams without action are impossible.”…The BullySelf.
Nothing happens if you don’t take action and today’s course is ACTION!
We’ve all been there. Motivation through the roof! Feeling like nothing can stop us. Then, suddenly the tiniest distraction creeps into the mind. It shows up without an invitation. It may not even have the slightest thing to do with your plans or goals, but in it jumps… and starts to throw you off.
Somewhere out of your head comes the thought, “You forgot the boxes she asked if you could get out of her car before she went to work. She’s going to be pissed when she can’t fit the groceries in without piling them on top of each other, when she shops on her way home.”
“Oh, yeah,” you think to yourself. A twinge vibrates through you. “…ugh!”
“She’s asked you to do that for the past 3 days and you still haven’t done it. She told you she had to do the shopping before Thursday when the kids were coming over for your birthday.”
“Shit.”
“Inconsiderate! No wonder she thinks you don’t care about the same things she’s interested in. It’s always about YOU! And now, now you’re headed out to work on something for who …oh yeah, Yourself …A-gain!!
“I’ll call her…”
“And just what do you think THAT will accomplish?!? She’s still going to be irritated! You’ll just get her riled up at work and that will tick her off even more!
Why don’t you just leave it alone, you’ve been a big disappointment for the past few months anyway. I don’t know what she sees in you.”
“I’ll drive over and get them out now…” you think, perking up with the thought of making it ok.
“She’s just going to know you wasted the trip because you were too inconsiderate and uncaring to bother with the things that make her life a little easier. It’s like all the other times. You are so selfish you don’t even know how disappointed she is already and you driving over to pull boxes out now will just remind her you were thinking of yourself, yet again. There really is no excuse.”
“I know, but I thought…”
“It’s always the same. You don’t have her needs on the radar until you’ve effed up the soup so bad. You’re ALWAYS trying to play catch-up. That’s no relationship, you just expect she’ll be there to support you and encourage you; but you never have her back. You never put her in a place of importance. She always gets the back burner. She always has to wait for you to notice. Most of the time she has to remind you over and over again! …You’re pathetic.”
It doesn’t take long before your mind has beat you up… again… and you did it to yourself. In a matter of minutes you’ve given away your power to a simple string of thoughts and your motivation is draining out of your heart, into your stomach.
Now, your heart is not into whatever had you so motivated, just ten minutes ago. Chances are, your thoughts are still piling it on, stirring up negative emotions, sucking the wind out of your sails. You’ve felt this way a thousand times. Every single time, these particular feelings drag you down into a deep hole where you expend all your energy trying to feel good about yourself again.
Sure, it’s just a fictitious example, but you know there are hundreds of self-talk conversations just like this where you end up feeling the tension between your heart and your bowels. You allow this to happen to you …A LOT!! Maybe in your head you’re thinking, “I do that ALL THE Frikkin’ TIME!!”
Maybe you’re still in denial. “No way I do that. At least… I’m not that bad…”
But it’s not the specific conversation. While the words you say to yourself inside your head are one of the single most important factors in building yourself up or tearing yourself down, it’s the FEELINGS that go along with those words, the ones that come up so automatically that you hardly notice they are feelings. You just respond to the trigger out of habit and you shut yourself down.
No one wants to work under those conditions. There is not a single piece of motivating encouragement anywhere in that string. Every single thought line ends up draining your power. How does ANYONE or ANY THING for that matter, act when there’s not sufficient power to act in the way they, or it, are built?!? THEY SHUT DOWN!! The batteries are DEAD! They need a recharge! They’re out of gas.
Toys stop in their tracks, music stops playing, your smart phone starts limiting functions to only the most important ones. Cars end up being parked, planes will fall out of the sky. Everything else goes on hold until the power to operate comes back to sufficient levels.
YOU are NO DIFFERENT! When your power is gone, you are dead in the water. Your fire is out. All systems STOP!
This is the CYCLE of INACTION. It shuts you down. And believe it or not, inaction itself can fuel the very Thoughts that cause the Feelings which drain the power to perform the Action.
The …Think – Feel – Do cycle.
Or the …Do – Feel – Think cycle.
It doesn’t matter which direction the cycle runs. If you won’t PAUSE at a situation and re-S.T.A.R.T. your thinking, you are going to be caught, like a hamster in a wheel. You’ll never complete the ACTIONS necessary to turn your dreams into reality. Or even get yourself back on your feet.
The ACTION is what brings about the change. When you find yourself in a CYCLE of INACTION, change will be a long way off. Get yourself out of the cycle at any and all cost.
It’s THAT important. No, no, no! Forget important… IT’S CRUCIAL!!
