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ou know, there is a heaven and earth difference between knowing what to do and actually taking action and doing it. In personal financial circles for example, a poor person is not one with no money. There are very many people with no money but with sound financial principles that they are practicing. You can hardly call them poor. On the flip side of the coin, there are other people with lots of income but have no sound financial principles that they are applying. [ictt-tweet-inline]The poor are those without action or principles.[/ictt-tweet-inline] The same applies with a life of purpose.

Knowing is not Final

Earlier on in my life, I was so consumed in seeking to know my purpose in life that I was literally paralyzed with the seeking. I wasn’t taking action on anything. I wanted to know for sure what it is in full before I could launch. I came to realize that at times, purpose revolves around a general theme over time. This means that if you put on activity in your purpose pursuit, you might wait for quite a long while and probably never come to realize your purpose.

Maximizing Potential

The other thing is to do with potential. Potential is what could be. On a scale of one to ten, we were all given a ten by God. Most of us when we were born, they counted all our fingers and they were a perfect ten. Fulfilling that potential though will be in direct proportion to how much action we dare take. I have come to realize that the slightest idea we have is supposed to be distilled into action. That idea will revolve and help us both draw closer to our purpose and also deploy our God-given potential.

• If writing is your thing that comes naturally, there is no reason why you should not be writing daily. Excuses such as “writers block” abound, but this should never stop you.
• If your natural disposition is towards singing, probably you need to be in studio each week.
• If you have been gifted by speech, by all means be giving a speech daily to the mirror audience
• If your gift is in leadership, start leading yourself.

Martin Luther King Jnr. Said:

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

There is No Vacuum in Nature

That explains my point. My mentor Dr. Mike Murdock says that the most ridiculous thing you can ever hear is an adult of health and sound mind saying that they cannot find a job. According to Dr. Murdock, he can find over 37 things in a building that can give him something to do to add value and get employed. The point is that there might never be a perfect time, condition or circumstance to take action. Do not get me wrong, timing is a critical aspect of a pursuit of purpose that we will discuss at another time.

Like we have already shared, it is absolutely useless to have knowledge but not to take action on that knowledge. Knowledge is not power, it is knowledge in action that has the real power. Knowing your purpose is just the door towards a fulfilling and productive life. Knowing is not enough, we must take action and start moving towards what we want.

The following though are some of the ways you can use to take action in order to draw near to your life of purpose.

1. Use Fear as a Motivator

Nothing paralyses a visionary like fear does. When you are afraid of what will happen, when you are scared of failure, when fear grips you and threatens to paralyze you, you have only one choice. That choices is to take action and move towards that fear. As you do, you start growing, only to realize that fear was an illusion. Also, understand that when you are afraid, you are in good company. There are very many people scared of the future and the outcome of their actions. The big winners though are those who feel the fear and do it anyway.

2. Research

The more you know about something, the more likely you are to get confidence to move on with it. This research though should not lead you into some kind of paralysis of analysis. At times, we want too much information. I have come to realize that God gives us information in terms of seeds, not a full tree with fruits on it. Therefore, learn to start moving with what you have as an idea. The more you look at it as you take action, the more you learn. The more you learn the better you become. Do not be comfortable with your ignorance and do not be comfortable with your inaction due to paralysis analysis.

3. Mastermind

Perhaps one of the most potent way of getting something done is getting people on board with the like passions. A Mastermind among other things gives accountability, extra information, leadership, momentum and impetus. We are so good at masterminding and it’s just that we fail to utilize it when it comes to purpose pursuit.

4. Prioritize

Prioritizing action comes with planning. I have come to realize that planning is the gun that starts us off on the race towards our purpose in life. I can tell you that a lot does not get done because folks do not sit down and plan. Believe me, we must be huge about planning for our lives of purpose. I do not think there is anybody who really fulfilled their potential and accomplished their purpose on earth without planning. One of the things that planning helps resolve is procrastination, which someone says it is “dying in installments”.

5. Tracking

Do you know how many hours you spent reading about your purpose last week? Do you know how much time of action you have accumulated about your purpose pursuit? Do you know what percentage of “living by design” you have attained this month? Do you now the what, when, who, how much and so on of your purpose pursuit? Of course you would have no clue about all these things if you were not tracking them. I have come to realize that a personal tracking mechanism is one way that I keep myself inspired. I cannot believe how people can leave a trackless life. It is mind boggling to me. Tracking helps you take action more than anything I know.

6. Burn The Ships

Laziness is a natural tendency and everyone is susceptible to its temptation. The only way of getting out of laziness is to “burn your ships”. This means that you destroy anything and everything that will give you an excuse of not taking action. It might be moving into a new neighborhood. It might be changing your phone numbers. It might be cutting that illicit relationship. I am sure that if you sat down, you will be able to document all the “small foxes that spoil your vines”, catch them and set them on fire. A general did this to his ships and there was no way out of the battle after crossing the sea but to win.

7. Be Resourceful

Now, this can be controversial. I have talked over and over again about the need for being focused on your purpose and doing only things that lead you towards it. However, what I have come to realize is that for the most part, you will need provision and resources in order to fund your vision. Being resourceful is having the capacity to participate in events and take actions that will provide you with the needed resources to fund what is important to you. Being resourceful might force you to take on some tasks that might seem mundane, but you take them anyway. It might force you to rethink some relationships altogether. If you wanted to take action on your purpose, you will have to learn to be resourceful other than be paralyzed by lack of resources.

Friends, there is nothing more critical than taking action on the knowledge that you have over your purpose in life. Let’s get started right away!