Caught in the 'Good Intentions' Inertia?

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" is ancient wisdom that puts me at risk of sounding cliche but it is a risk I am prepared to take. I couldn't say it better myself anyway, and it remains a truism that we all would do well to accept....yeah, whether we believe in hell or not. The point is, we never achieve our desires, our dreams, our goals simply by having good intentions. In the words of  Jim Rohn, "sooner or later our level of activity must equal our level of intent."

 Sir Isaac Newton's law of motion (in this context, the law of inertia) is more than applicable here: "if an object is motionless, it will remain motionless unless acted upon." I have always found it interesting that natural laws are so transferable into the social/psychological sphere.  The truth is, in our experiences the trajectory of our lives remains unchanged unless acted upon by an outside force. And yes, this holds true whether that trajectory is self determined or imposed upon us by circumstances or the by the opinions of others. What is important though is that in the context of personal growth the external force that creates the impetus for change is never sufficient to guarantee momentum. Motivation doesn't last they say. True. We must want change badly enough to, first of all, move our life experience beyond good intentions, and then to guarantee the results we want by sustained effort.

So how then do we move ourselves beyond this personal inertia in which we become so easily entangled? How do we develop the guts to do something different? How do we push ourselves past dreaming to grab a hold of the opportunities that present themselves to us? How do we ensure that the insidious pull of personal inertia doesn't leave us with the pain of regret later on in life? It starts with taking responsibility for our results, recognizing simply that real and sustained change in our circumstances will only happen when there is real change in our philosophies and attitudes...changing the 'set of our sail' in relation to the direction of the wind. Who knows, maybe this post may be the external force that initially acts upon your life circumstances, but real change is up to you....your willingness to move beyond a wish, a dream, a desire, a plan....into action that brings results.

The fact is that your conviction of talent, skills or abilities is worth precious little until you put them into action. And if truth be told, for most of us who want to pursue a dream our first attempts will be less than appealing....nothing to write home about for sure. But we have to be willing to do it, and do it again, and again until we beat the inertia, get it right and start getting the results we are capable of. Its important to recognize that change is up to you......time to get beyond your good  intentions, push past the inertia, develop the right philosophies and attitudes and do the work required to move you from dreamer to achiever. Yes, dreams are important in the beginning, but in the end dreams.....fulfilled or unfulfilled.... become our yardstick for personal value.. that which we judge ourselves by.....you get to choose!