You Have to Act Your Way Into a New Life

You are not where you want to be because you are not yet the person who would be there. And you have to act before you become, because you only become by acting. You cannot think your way into a new life. You have to act your way into one.

This sounds simple enough that many readers will nod and move on, nut the principle deserves more than a nod. Surely, there is real power in thinking, in pre-visualization, in clarifying what you want, in modeling who you intend to be. But thought without action is a closed system that feeds itself. It is like rearranging the same furniture in the same room and calls the rearranging change. Nothing in you actually updates until the idea leaves the head and meets resistance.

The first time I gave a public lecture, the material was on the principles of The Art of War applied to business and career. My old self-concept was strong withing me, whispering things like: no experience, you’ll fail, you’ll stutter, you’ll forget. I made a quiet promise to set t…