Autopsy
of Inaction: The Living Dead
Subject: Success, motivation, Inaction,
Procrastination, Envy
By Victor Antonio G.
How
do people get to the point in their life where they aren't motivated to do
anything? Why do people lose hope? As I go around the
U.S. speaking, too often I come across people who seemed to have given up
on their dream or aspirations. They've settled for what they've
gotten and there's no more fight in them. I can see it in their
eyes; they look defeated.
I've put together here ONE scenario of
what I think happens to some who lose that spirit of achieving their
highest potential. I like to think of this diagnosis as an autopsy
of inaction. This is what happens to people who don't take action in
life and simply accept their fate accompli.
You
didn’t take time to write down your goals, because you didn’t need to. You
have them right in your head…no need to write them out. Everyone
reminds you to write down your goals, but you insist it isn't necessary.
Time goes
on and you
get this uneasy feeling that you are NOT progressing in life as fast as you’d
like. But you can’t be sure of this lack of progress because you have no
goals by which to measure your progress.
Since you
can’t measure your progress, you decide to look to a surrogate measurement by
comparing what you have to what others have. You do this comparative analysis and you
ultimately conclude that you don’t have as much as another person your age or as
much as the person you went to High School with.
Now you get
more depressed and become irritable. You become so irritable that people
find it hard to talk to you because you’re either grumpy all the time or you
bite their heads off when they say anything that triggers some insecure feeling
about not making progress in life.
The result?
You start losing friends. Now they won’t tell you that they’re not your
friends any more, they just stop calling you or find excuses of why they can’t
get together with you.
Now
resentment kicks in and you affirm to yourself that you don’t need friends any
way. So you close in on yourself and now the television become your new,
best friend. It’s a wonderful companion because it helps you forget about
your worries by numbing your mind.
But then you
start noticing that people on the television seem to have a better life than you
do. Your discontent grows as you see how much other people have on the
television and how much you don’t as you survey your skimpy apartment.
Even though
television is NOT a reflection of reality, you get more depressed and
unmotivated to do anything. You soon realize (or imagine to yourself) how far
behind you are compared to others when it comes to material measures of success.
Now you're totally depressed or deject and you don't want to do anything.
When you get
to this point, you've reached the “I Accept” point of your life:
I accept that I will never be happy.
I accept that I will never have the things others have.
I accept that I will never be able to achieve the dreams I once had.
Once you’ve
reached this point, you join the millions who live out their lives in quiet
desperation every day. Although you have an almost mute yearning for more
in life, you
reconcile within yourself that maybe this is all there is to have in life.
You tell yourself
that you will never be more than what you’ve already become, The Living Dead.
Although you
have not been officially pronounced dead, your spirit and will have long since
abandoned you. And one day, as the final moments of life close in on and you
feel the reaper’s breath upon the nape of your neck, what will you say? I don’t
know, but I can imagine that it might go something like this:
I settled
for less, I didn’t do my best,
Early I
faltered, My life I did alter,
My mind
retreated, My spirit now defeated,
I wish I had…
One more
smile,
Just one
more laugh,
One more
kiss,
Just one
more hug,
One more
love,
Just one
more friend,
One more
chance,
Just one
last dance,
some more
time...
When the end
comes I’m sure that you won't be asking for money, a new car, a bigger house,
etc. The things you’ll long for the most in those final moments will be those
things you could’ve had for free. Success is measured by the quality of your
life, not by some comparative analysis of what you do or do not have.
Remember,
-
Don’t be discouraged to act because you feel
you’re too far behind. Nonsense!
-
Don’t compare what you want to what others
have. Mistake!
-
Don’t let your dream suffocate under
indecision. Tragic!
And finally, don’t let
inaction lead you down a path of despair. It’s a dead-end.
As the Star
Wars’ Jedi Master Yoda would probably say, “Umm, lonely you’ll be!”
Forward this on to someone who has lost that
glimmer in their eye, that pep in their step, that lift in their stride.
Victor Antonio G.
is a Keynote Motivational Speaker
and Trainer with 20 years of industry experience in
the high tech market. He has a BS in Electrical
Engineering and an MBA.
Copyright © 2005 by Victor Antonio G. All rights reserved. This article MAY
be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, as long as the author’s name, website and email
address are included as part of the article’s body. All inquiries,
including information on electronic licensing, should be directed to Victor Antonio G.
at
info@victorantonio.com .
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