I mean, I hear what Marx is saying – but it might be nice to try, right? To find the finish line for ‘nothing’.
But (unfortunately) there is no finish line for nothing. You can’t cross it, can’t celebrate it, can’t look back and say “I did that.” Doing nothing doesn’t even have the decency to end. It just… continues. Quietly. Forever, if you let it.
That’s the trap. Excuses at least have a shape — a reason, a sentence, an ending. “I’ll start Monday.” Doing nothing doesn’t even give you that. It’s not a decision, it’s an absence. And absences don’t resolve. They just accumulate.
And I get the temptation. I’ve lived the temptation!! I sometimes still fall into it – doing nothing. It’s safer – well, it’s not really, but it feels safer. If you don’t do anything, you’re not judged, you can’t fail. Lack of action means you can continue to make excuses, continue in the comfortable (even if you don’t like it) misery of numbness, entitlement and idealistic ideas of how things should be. It’s easy to talk the talk. Much harder to walk the walk!
If you could see my ideas – the folders, docs, sheets, notebooks, – all the intentions, the things written down as “goals” and sometimes plans, that I am in love with and super excited about – but never put energy into. They are open tabs that aren’t executed. They are ‘proof’ to my brain that I ‘can’t’ succeed. I ‘can’t’ create. I ‘can’t’ have a voice.
Because I do nothing.
I say I want to create, teach, speak, write, make a difference, help others, make people see their worth, introduce people to God – but .. I do nothing. And doing nothing means I will never be finished – because I don’t get past concept.
What would it look like if I did? If I took action daily? If I found my voice – whether in type or verbally? If I did the dang thing?!?
What would be different when I looked in the mirror?
I do not want to get to the end of my life and have to tell God I was too …. scared? lazy? busy? ….. to do what He told me to do. To tell God, “I know you gifted me in certain areas, but I didn’t want people to judge me. I wasn’t sure I could do it good enough and I didn’t want to be embarrassed.”
Oh man! Life is too short to live like this! So knotted up in fear and …. I don’t think there’s another word – I think it’s just fear.
Face Everything and Rise! That’s what we are going to do. We are no longer doing nothing – we are going to get to the finish line and hear “Well done, good and faithful servant”
Today’s move: Get a piece of paper and write down one thing that you have not done that you know you know you need to do. Give it a finish line – a deadline and get started.
Now, get up and go chase your dreams!
Finding Motivation in the Mess — Month of Voice, Day 4
https://findingmotivationinthemess.net/