June 26

Some creative pros are so afraid of making a mistake that they’d rather freeze in place until they can figure out the right path forward. The one thing they are absolutely certain about is that everyone around them has it all figured out—that they are surely the only ones who are treading water. After all, look at all the confidence everyone else conveys!

The irony is that when you freeze in place, you only dig yourself deeper into your rut. Inaction is the enemy of discovery. The path to self- discovery is not through thought but through action. As Ellen Langer wrote inOn Becoming an Artist, “Action is the way we get to experience ourselves. And so, we act not to bring about an outcome but to bring about ourselves.” We discover our unique contribution—our giftedness— not by contemplating what we might do but by actually doing things, feel- ing the resistance of the world when we act, learning about our response to that resistance, then adapting, trying again, and continuing the cycle.

Action is the only way to self-discovery. It’s the only path to fulfill- ment. It’s not what you know, it’s what you do about it that matters.

Be a person of action.

QUESTION

is there an action that you know you need to take but have been hesitant to do so? Why are you hesitant to act?