Four Reasons to Stop Talking and Start Doing
Living A Life of Focus – Part 13
Stop talking and start doing. I’ve been around too many people who say a lot. They are always going to do something great or they are in the process of doing something great that is. When I saw this normal habit begin to rub off on me, we made this statement our focus. Let’s just stop all the talking and get on with the work.
The Thought or Concept:
You’ve probably heard someone use the phrase “less talk and more action.” But have you ever asked why? Well, when we implemented this focus statement, “stop talking and start doing” this was a question we’d been faced with ourselves. Let’s discuss the problem.
I found a problem with having way too many open items in our life. We had more unfinished business than we could manage. There’s just too much paperwork sitting around waiting to be processed in some shape form or fashion. There were way too many repeatable tasks I was doing that could have been done by someone else. We had too many projects open without a plan and date to have them accomplished. We spent more time talking about the problems and not enough time putting actions to what had already been said.
In fact, most of the open items came from previous talk that had been done. So we drew a line and said stop with the talking.
After discussing with others, we’ve found that this is a common problem. It’s normal. That being said most (51% or more) have more open action items to get done than they can manage getting done. The number one reason for this is too much talking. As a society we do a lot of talking about what we plan on doing and do very little to get it done.
The Practice:
In response we have identified four reasons it’s imperative to stop with all the talking and begin acting.
A person doesn’t become a doer naturally.
But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. – bible.com/bible/116/JAS.1.22.NLT
How can we move from being just a listener to a doer?
Even when it comes to the things of faith. People are naturally “listeners.” In fact James (the brother of Jesus), quoted above, gives us insight into two types of people: the listeners-only and the listener-doers. It’s normal practice to listen and hear what should be done, but don’t act on it. That means 51% or more times than not a person will hear what’s necessary to be done and pass on doing it. It also means that 49% and fewer have what it takes to go from listening-only to listening plus doing. We’ve decided to be the latter. If you evaluate your life thoroughly, you can find areas where this normal habit of listening-only might be holding you back. I think you get the point, let’s move on to the next one.
Talk-only leads to poverty.
Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty! – bible.com/bible/116/PRO.14.23.NLT
It doesn’t take much convincing to become a doer once it’s realized that “mere talk” will lead one to poverty, but action brings profit. Once I read this Proverb, I got after it. Here’s what it meant to me. If I do not take action when it comes to my life, my life will end in poverty not profit. If I do nothing when it comes to my relationship, the inability to act leads to a poverty-stricken relationship. If I fail to take action when it comes to my religion, there’s no hope to profit in the area of my spirituality. If one takes no action in interacting with others, just talking about it leads to a deficit in the areas of you interacting with the world around us. Mere talk leads to only one place and that’s poverty. We must put the work in, to be profitable, to have a profit in life which is our business.
The blessing comes from doing.
This one is for people of faith which my family is. There’s a blessing that comes with doing.
…if you do what it [Your Bible] says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it [what your Bible says]. – bible.com/bible/116/JAS.1.25.NLT
In mathematical word problems, any time you see the word “if” it implies that a condition is offered, an if-then condition. If this, then the result is X, otherwise the result is Y. It’s called a condition and the condition must be satisfied. Using the statement above, there are two conditions implied.
If you do,
then God will bless you.
If you do not,
then God will not bless you.
There are many people (most, 51% or more) who leave their blessing on the table. If God had a blessing waiting for you, wouldn’t you want what He [God] has to offer? When you stop talking and start doing the next thing that happens is God’s blessing begins to show up in your life. The reason no favorable movement happens when you’re talking about your ideas is because you never began to operate in faith by taking action. You’ve not begun to satisfy the condition appropriately. You see taking action on anything is the action of faith. Your inability to act reveals your lack of faith and your ability to act reveals your steps of faith.
Moving on to the last reason I have for this focus statement, stop talking and start doing.
It’s actions that matter.
I’ve heard famous artists, athletes, inventors, speakers, and writers say that their gifts reveal their actions of love. “We love what we do.” This is a quote from a member of the Earth, Wind, and Fire band. What they bring us, is an act of their love for the gift they have and they use it to serve us.
[L]et’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. – bible.com/bible/116/1JN.3.18.NLT
My wife is going to hate I found this, but I don’t believe in saying “I love you” often. It’s my belief and this scripture bears it out that love must be shown by our actions. Stop talking and start doing. It’s not enough to say I love you. My point in bringing this up regarding this focus statement, stop talking start doing, is because we too often allow the words to be the end all and the actions betray the words. In other words, someone says “I love you”, but their actions say they don’t. Could it be that you’re saying I love you, but your actions betray those words? Stop talking and start doing.
I’ve figured it out. The easy way is to do nothing. Most people like it easy and it takes effort to take action. That’s okay because I feel like I’m talking to people who want greatness. The person reading this doesn’t mind putting in the work required of a doers. The person who reads this has no desire to live in poverty. The person who’s subscribed to this website understands that the blessing comes as a result of doing. The person who’s a recipient of this message understands that talk is cheap and action produces results.
Today is Friday!
What more can I say to convince you to stop talking and start doing? What can I do to convince you that next-level individuals apply focus statements to their life that we study for a year to produce the desired change we wish to have in our life, our business.
Thank you for visiting kerryaclark.com. I’m glad you did. There’s someone you know who could stand to read this message so that their talking stops and their actions start. Until next Friday, share this message with as many people as you can think of.
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