Action

There is a story told of a great fisherman who was somewhat of a local legend because he always caught lots of fish. One day a stranger, having heard the stories and looking for some ‘fishing’ action, approached the fisherman and pleaded with him to take him fishing.

As the boat left the dock the stranger noticed that the legendary fisherman didn’t have any rods with him, only a large tackle box and a big net on the end of a pole. The stranger mentioned this oversight but the fisherman assured him that he had everything he needed for a sizeable catch.

Before long, the boat pulled into a sheltered cove and the fisherman dropped anchor. The stranger watched with interest as the fisherman opened his tackle box, pulled out a stick of dynamite, tied it to a brick, lit the fuse and then quickly lobbed it over the side.

A few seconds later, there was a muffled explosion followed by a plume of shooting water. Immediately afterwards large quantities of dead fish floated to the surface and the fisherman grabbed his net. The stranger had seen enough. “Hold on!” he shouted as he reached into his pocket and pulled out his ID. “I’m the new game keeper and you’ve been caught red-handed. You know, very well, that it’s against the law to blow up fish!”

Well, the fisherman didn’t miss a beat. He reached over to his tackle box, took out another stick of dynamite, lit the fuse and smiled broadly as he handed it to the stunned game keeper: “Now,” said the fisherman, “are you going to fish or are you just stand there?”

Are you a thermostat or a thermometer? You are one or the other. A thermometer registers the temperature. It simply reflects its environment, whether it’s hot or cold. A thermostat, on the other hand, controls the temperature. It influences its environment; it sets the standard. Which are you – a thermometer or a thermostat?

Rick Warren

Rick Warren, God’s Power To Change Your Life, 2006, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, p.152

When you get an insight or inspiration, do something about it within twenty-four hours – or the odds are against you ever acting on it.

Bill Glass

When Christianity turns into a noun it becomes a turnoff. Christianity was always intended to be a verb. And, more specifically, an action verb. The title of the book of Acts says it all, doesn’t it? It’s not the book of Ideas or Theories or Words. It’s the book of Acts. (…) Some of us live as if we expect to hear God say, “Well thought, good and faithful servant!” or “Well said, good and faithful servant!” God isn’t going to say either of those things. There is only one commendation, and it is, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Mark Batterson

Mark Batterson, Wild Goose Chase, 2008, Colorado USA, Multnomah Books, p.29

Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?” And Isaiah said: “Here I am. Send me” (Isaiah 6:8). When was the last time you prayed that prayer? What would it take for you to pray it today?

There are only three kinds of people in this world of ours: People who make things happen, people who watch things happen and people who sit back and wonder what on earth did happen! – Which category are you going to fall in to?

R. Ian Seymour

Have you heard the parable of the waddling ducks? In a certain town, each Sunday morning all the ducks waddle down the road to church. They waddle towards their favourite pews and sit down. The duck choir waddles in and performs a few songs, before the pastor duck waddles to the pulpit and delivers a thundering sermon: “Fellow ducks, God has given each one of us wings! These wings enable us to fly, anywhere, anytime. Our Scriptures even tells us we can soar on wings like eagles. Nothing can hold us back. So let’s get out there and fly!” The gathered congregation of ducks give a hearty “Amen!”… and then they all waddle off home again.

There is a world of difference between talking the talk and walking and walk. Actions always speak louder than words!

Source: Simon Guillbaud, For What It’s Worth, 2006, Oxford: Monarch Books, p.146

ACTION means doing. It means turning your good intentions into, ACTs in motION.

R. Ian Seymour

Did you know that on average it takes 250 tons of rock to produce a single diamond? Each diamond, once it’s been refined, is then sorted into 1 of 5000 categories based on the carat, colour, clarity and the cut of the precious stone. Now, that’s an awful lot of work for one diamond but then, just look at how valuable diamonds are! To everything there is a cost. The question is, are you willing to pay the price? Are you willing to take the necessary action and pay the price to achieve your dreams?

R. Ian Seymour

Adapted from Discover Your True Potential” by R. Ian Seymour

My mother would have said, “Pee or get off the pot! You have sat here long enough contemplating the next move, it’s time to act.”

T. D. Jakes

Winning starts with beginning.

Dr Robert H. Schuller (US clergyman and writer)

Do not wait. The time will never be just right. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970), writer

Some people are so always looking ahead that they put everything off until tomorrow.

Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.

Proverbs 10:4

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present. Unwrap yours right now!

It is action that counts, not your good intentions. You might very well have a heart of gold but, there again, so does a hard-boiled egg! – Anon.

William Barclay wrote, ‘There is nothing more dangerous than the repeated experience of a fine emotion with no attempt to put it into action. It is a fact that every time a man feels a noble impulse without taking action, he becomes less likely ever to take action.’

Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause of fear. Perhaps the action you take will be successful; perhaps different action or adjustments will have to follow. But any action is better than no action at all.

Norman Vincent Peale

Action is always the antidote to despair.

Some people say nothing is impossible, but there are an awful lot of people doing nothing every day.

John Mason (writer)

A big-game hunter is the guy who sits with the remote control and continually flips over the TV channels all Sunday afternoon during football season. – Anon.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

Abraham Lincoln

Do It… Do It Right… Do It Right Now.

You can’t move ahead when you’re in neutral or reverse. To start moving forward again, you have to get into first, first. Get into gear!

R. Ian Seymour

On July 2nd 1982 Larry Walters, a 33-year old American truck driver, reached the point where he’d simply had enough of just sitting around! – So this is what he did: He rigged 42 six-foot weather balloons to an aluminium garden chair and took to the skies for the ride of his life! Walters filled the balloons with helium, strapped on a parachute, grabbed his camera and a pellet-gun and ‘took off’. He was airborne for all of 45 minutes and climbed to at least 16,000 feet before eventually the cold got to him, so he shot some of the balloons with his pellet gun and finally came back down to earth, with a bump!

Larry Walters didn’t have any equipment with him to calculate his altitude but we know for certain that he climbed to at least 16,000 feet. – How? – Because astonished jetliner pilots from both Delta Airlines and Trans World Airlines independently reported seeing a flying garden chair with a man in it, waving to them!

Walters became an overnight celebrity but it wasn’t all fun and frolics: He was also fined for his reckless act! When he was asked by the judge why he had done it, he replied, “It was something that I just had to do, and I just couldn’t sit around any longer.”

Don’t delay; start today.

We shall do much in the years to come,
But what have we done today?
We shall give our gold in a princely sum,
But what did we give today?
We shall lift the heart and dry the tear,
We shall plant a hope in the place of fear,
We shall speak in words of love and cheer,
But what did we speak today?

We shall be so kind in the afterwhile,
But what have we been today?
We shall bring each lonely life a smile,
But what have we brought today?
We shall give to truth a grander birth,
And to steadfast faith a deeper worth,
We shall feed the hungering souls of earth,
But whom have we fed today?

We shall reap such joys in the by and by,
But what have we sown today?
We shall build up mansions in the sky,
But what have we built today?
’Tis sweet in idle dreams to bask,
But here and now do we do our task?
Yes, this is the thing our souls must ask,
“What have we done today?”
–Anon.

Don’t hesitate, initiate.

There are two ways you can climb an oak tree: You can either climb it or you can sit on an acorn!

You must get good at one of two things: planting in the spring or begging in the fall.

Jim Rohn

Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.

Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British Prime Minister

I have never heard anything about the resolutions of the apostles, but I have heard a great deal about their acts.

Horace Mann (1796-1859), American educational reformist

One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum in which men steal through existence like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), Scottish novelist and poet

Do the things you have to do, when you have to do them and the day will come when you’ll be able to do the things you want to do, when you want to do them.

Zig Ziglar (motivational speaker and author).

Well done is better than well said.

Benjamin Franklin

People who wait for their ship to come in get disappointed or die on the pier.

Bob Gass

When your ship is sinking don’t just sit around waiting to be rescued; instead, grab a bucket or whatever else you can lay your hands on and start bailing out!

The right time and the right place is usually right now!