Over the years a lot has been written about productivity, getting more out of yourself, your time, efficiency and many such subjects which deals with increasing the outcomes of individuals. They have all had some degree of impact on individuals and people have seen success by implementing methods.
I stumbled upon an article which talked about a bank fox and how he transformed the work space and a line in that caught my attention. The gentleman had only 2 boxes in his desk. One named ACTION and the other named TRASH. I find that most people suffer from looking at detailed methods to develop themselves and most of them fail getting to the first step itself. In that context this 2 box theory was really fascinating and I thought of writing it out the way I see it.
Life in general and work in specific is all about dealing with these 2 boxes. It actually unclutters most of the stuff we normally carry around us thinking that we are working. These 2 boxes crystallise our priorities in a most simple way that anyone can understand.
ACTION:
First, nothing changes without action metamorphically and physically and it’s an universal law of science and mind. Now all of us know this simple truth, but how many of us have really given a thought while we do a lot of stuff whether this “Action” helps me in achieving my goals or dreams? There lies the essence of looking at action in the new perspective. If your actions don’t help you to move forward in life why even do them? So, you need to trash those actions right away.
Second,
We tend to take time for granted and postpone actions and keep on planning. While there is no second opinion that a good planning is required before actions, many a times we confuse planning for actions while actions have its own specific definition and elements.
Definition of ACTION: an action is a human endeavour either by way of DOING, COMMUNICATING, FACILITATING, HELPING that results in a CHANGE which is DESIRABLE and MEASURABLE.
So, it’s clear that the opposite and all of them which is not of what this definition holds cannot be counted as action. The central message of this definition is, if whatever you do is NOT CHANGING something, then they are not actions. Add with that the caveat qualifiers desirable change and measurable change to ensure that the action’s intentions remain in the ethical domain and management domain respectively.
The elements thus stand out as these: DOING – COMMUNICATING – FACILITATING- HELPING- CHANGE- DESIRABLE- MEASURABLE.
Ask yourself every time you do something if it fits into these elements which goes to satisfy the definition.
The third aspect is about your attitude. Attitude by definition from the psychology dictionary authored by Arthur S. Reber & Emily Reber gives a beautiful set of meanings and insights. First the word attitude has its origin from Latin “laptitudo” meaning “fitness”. So, it means fitness to do a task. So, its clear from the original meaning right from the root word itself that ATTITUDE=ACTION.
Second, in extension of many other aspects the word attitude also means an internal affective orientation which describes the external actions. This means, that what internally you think, debate, visualise, desire, fear results in your external actions which is called your attitude. So, combine the above two and you get that, your actions are physical and it represents your cognitive inner emotions.
The question now you need to ask yourself is “When it comes to my self-development, what am I thinking internally? How does it feel? Do I fear criticism? Am I fit enough to perform the tasks? When given a chance do I do it or do I try to escape? Am I an action-oriented person or wait for others to act?
Derivation of this can be: My emotions in a way shapes my attitude and hence I need to pay attention to my emotions. Emotions raise based on experience and experience can be forced or selective. When you are a child you are forced experience everything and you grow adding your emotions. Tasks such as brushing, toilet training, taking bath, wearing clothes and almost everything is a forced experience. You experienced fear, anxiety, happiness and grew adding all of it. When you are an adult, the experiences are not forced (in general) but selected by you. Love, travel, hobbies, studies, and every single action is your choice and your choices gives you varied experience which adds as emotions and more the number of times you experience the same emotion the more control you have over them. For ex. If you choose to speak in meetings as a choice and the greater number of times you do it you gain control over stage fear, anxiety and all those things they say about obstacles of public speaking. If you choose to get involved in a social organization and volunteer to organise events and projects, you gain control over emotions facing criticism, feedback, expectation management etc.
Hence the ACTIONS and EMOTIONS are intertwined in a way, that you need both in equal proportions to get a winning attitude. Right actions require right emotions and right emotions gained by doing actions.
Well, I know we have come a little far from those 2 simple boxes we started off with, so let me get you back to those boxes.
Keep only 2 boxes in life and visualise like its in front of your desk. Action box and Trash box. Every minute of your waking hours work out of your action box as per the definitions discussed above, create change, develop yourself, develop your family and society. Trash everything else which steals your time, binds you down to laziness and lowers your productivity and paves way for negative emotions and useless thoughts.
By now, you know your life depends ACTIONS and nothing else and TRASH everything else that does not fit into the definition of ACTION. By adapting to this equation, you will find yourself racing ahead of others in every aspect of your life.
ACT NOW.