Hi Kelli
I understand that the law of attraction isn’t an excuse to be passive. But I feel bad when I take actions towards the things I’m wanting to accomplish. Because of this I’ve been trying to hold back on bad feeling action but this is making me feel like I AM being passive. Inspiration doesn’t seem to be coming but the pull to do something is still there. I’m a bit confused as to where the line of being passive and doing meaningful work/waiting for inspiration is.
Ah, the role of action in the manifesting ‘process.’ A great source of tension and anxiety for the conscious creator, whether a newbie or the more ‘seasoned.’
This is one of those questions where the answer can only go very general because the nature of the manifestation, the types of actions being taken, the state of the person’s energy and the like mean lots of different things could be happening to make the person feel this way.
But between drawing on my own experience with this as a fellow human, and tackling some of the broader issues that probably come into play for most, it should give you a nice foundation from which to evaluate the situation in your own life and figure out what’s going on.
The Most Important Thing to Remember about Action
The first thing to remember when it comes to action, and how it fits into the whole scheme of energy work and consciously creating your reality, is action is a manifestation of energy, NOT separate from it. It’s not like our options are take action to make things happen or ‘use’ the law of attraction.
All we do is being motivated by something inside of us. Our actions, habits and behavior are not impulses materializing out of thin air. Something internal is prompting us, and the actions we take and why we take them is stemming from our belief system, how we’re viewing a situation, our thoughts, our feelings.
By time we’re in the realm of action, our energy is already playing out; we’re either acting from an ‘energetically-friendly’ space or we’re not, again, depending on what is motivating us.
So….
What’s Motivating Your Actions?
If the actions we’re taking aren’t feeling good, we either shouldn’t be doing them at all or they may be beneficial but we may need to clean up the energy a bit before taking them.
For example, if you’re taking some sort of action for your business that doesn’t feel good, why are you doing something that doesn’t feel good?
Is it because someone else said you should be doing this thing if you want to get some specific result?
Is it because you believe you ‘have’ to do this thing?
Are you trying to force and manipulate outcomes?
Is there a fear not doing it would prevent you from getting what you want?
Are you in a huge rush to get somewhere else other than where you are now and are thinking all these actions will speed things along?
Anytime we’re taking action that doesn’t feel good or right or aligned, something energetically is off…it has to be or else we wouldn’t be doing something that feels badly. Again, action is level of ‘effect,’ being driven by our energy.
Feeling badly inside will lead us to taking actions that feel badly.
If you’re taking actions with a strong attachment to a specific result, even an action that could be very enjoyable won’t feel good. For example, many people who get into a line of work about which they feel very passionate often get a taste of this sooner than later because it all becomes about getting stuff from people, making money.
They may start off loving writing their blog posts, making their videos and podcasts,etc…but when they don’t seem to be ‘getting’ anything out of it, it doesn’t feel so fun anymore.
And it’s not because the activity is ‘wrong’ or isn’t resonant, it’s simply because their energy is all fucked up. Instead of giving freely and generously, letting the action and the good feelings be its own reward, it’s all a means to an end.
Instead of enjoying the moment, enjoying the flow of creativity and what not, the present moment is simply a stepping stone to getting something in the future.
The problem is, the future doesn’t really exist, all we have is ‘now’ and if we don’t learn to live in that space more often, changing our energy becomes very hard because that is our point of true power and we’re wasting it by always trying to get something we don’t have now, getting somewhere we aren’t now. Most actions we take will feel badly to some degree if this is our predominant energy.
Making Peace with Where You Are Now
Awesome question asker noted feeling the pull to do something, but that good-feeling, inspired action didn’t seem to be making its way in.
For most of us, that pull stems from resisting our current reality, feelings and circumstances. It’s okay to not like where you are now and want to get somewhere else. There’s no reason to not like your life, to settle for situations that don’t feel good.
BUT, when all we do is motivated by trying to get rid of the feelings we don’t like now, where we’re fighting against ‘what is’ lack of inspired action makes us very antsy. We still think action is the core of what creates our experience and if we’re not doing anything, things won’t change. And all this tension and anxiety, all this resisting of where we are now, all the fretting over the absence of these inspired ideas and actions just keeps them from making their way in.
Again, okay to want to change your unwanted circumstances but if this is your focus, zeroing in on the types of actions that will be of most benefit will be a much more slow-going process. Any action will feel badly from this space, even ones that would normally feel good and right.
If you make peace with where you are now, realizing the energetic benefit of giving up the fight, in this ‘cleaner’ more ‘neutral’ space, you’ll get the clarity you seek. You’ll be in a better position to address action part of the equation however it factors into getting where you want to be.
You won’t be in a space where every little thing you do is all about getting what you don’t yet have; you won’t fret and stress over every decision wondering how it ‘fits in’ with getting what you want.
Inspired Action Isn’t Always Comfortable Action
When we think of ‘inspired’ action, we tend to think of action that is light, right, easy and fun through and through. You get lost in it, it feels amazing and effortless. Not an ounce of fear, discomfort or other ‘ick.’. And this is certainly true in many instances.
But much of the time, especially in the early stages of making certain changes in our life, engaging in certain pursuits, it feels highly uncomfortable. It’s almost impossible for it not to.
If these things felt so easy, fun and free of tension, we would have been doing them a long time ago, and would have never end up in a position of putting off positive change for so long, remaining in unwanted situations for years or even decades.
So how do you know if an action is ‘right’ and the ‘ick’ is just fear and discomfort vs. the action not being right at all or it’s perhaps not the right time to take it?
Unfortunately you can’t consult some sort of flow chart. This is one area of life, like most areas actually, where you can only know for yourself by way of honest self-reflection. Only you know how you feel, only you know your motivations, only you know your energy and the ‘kinks’ within it.
If you know it’s right, if you know this action is seemingly a linchpin to getting where you want to be, you have to bite the bullet and just do that shit, whether it’s starting the blog, dipping your toe into the dating pool after your divorce by letting your friends set you up on blind dates, rebranding your business, creating that new product or service…whatever.
Only You Know What’s Going On…
Like I mentioned earlier, only you know what’s happening inside. If you’re honest about how you’re feeling, the space from which you’re trying to effect positive change in your life, blah, blah, blah, you’ll know exactly what you need to do or not do, to stop doing or start doing.
You’ll know if you’re just being passive, waiting for the Universe to hopefully swoop in and fix things or if the time truly isn’t right for action, and you need to regroup energetically a bit before moving to that part of the process.
Only you know if the lack of action is a symptom of some energetic block that if addressed, would get your ass moving in one way or another, or again, the time just isn’t right for action.
Only you know why the actions you do happen to take feel badly–are they truly out of alignment and just not right for you? Or is is just the space you are taking them from that is making them feel badly?
Only you know if what you are trying to pursue is what you actually want. Trying to get somewhere you actually don’t want to be, trying to get something you actually don’t want, is a surefire recipe for inertia, bad-feeling action and tension all around.
This honest self-reflection simplifies a journey we overcomplicate to such a degree it’s almost farcical. The problem is not wanting to go within because that can be icky and uncomfortable; the mind thinks denying all this and just trying to be ‘positive’ or whatever will take care of everything.
We shut down so much energy, we block so much inspiration and clarity, when we exist primarily in the space of fighting where we are now, always wanting to be somewhere else emotionally and circumstance-wise.
Our mind thinks this is how we are supposed to behave in the face of unwanted experiences, it somehow thinks it helps. It doesn’t. Your mind hasn’t the slightest clue how the world of energy works.
If you’re feeling stuck right now, if you’re not where you want to be, the lack of action isn’t really the problem since action doesn’t create our reality. The energy is ‘off’ in one way or another, and once that gets address, the actions reveal themselves.
The ‘being’ paves the way for the ‘doing’ and you don’t have to figure out what actions to take anymore, you won’t stress over whether an action is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ You’ll just know what to do, you’ll know when to act in spite of discomfort, you’ll know when to pull back, you’ll know what works for you and what doesn’t. You’ll trust more in your intuitive assessment of situations and the appropriate actions for you personally.
Your Turn
What did you think of the post? Anything resonate in particular? What has your experience been with working action into the manifesting equation?
So that’s that.
On a somewhat related note, I recently did a guest post on Blogging from Paradise, my husband’s awesome site, outlining common energetic kinks that may be holding you back in business.
Have a question you think would make a good blog post? Submit it here.
The inspired-uncomfortable point is SOOOO important. People think you need to feel super energized, good and clear to act, or the action sucks from an energy perspective. Unless you are Lord Buddha or Jesus Christ, this may be a tad unrealistic. Be generous, be genuine, be helpful, keep giving, go slowly and patiently, and most of all: read Kelli’s blog and her guest posts on Ryan’s blog. Even if he writes of himself in 3rd person.
Hi Kelli,
I know this is an old post, but I’d like to share my thoughts on this topic, hoping it might help others.
In my own experience, an inspired action is something that you don’t really think about, you just do it. You just KNOW this is the right thing to do, even though it might totally go against what your mind wants to do or what your mind “logically” would do. Again, this really comes down to feelings. You feel that “this is right”, you just feel it in your soul. It’s something that just “flows” from within. And another important point is that in this case, you truly, honestly don’t care about the outcome.
While an action that comes from your mind always feels like a struggle or an effort, and usually it has a motive behind it. You do it because you want to achieve something. I always feel a bit of anxiety or fear when I get such an instruction from my mind, that’s how I know that it’s not an inspired action.
But when I’m doing something inspired, I always feel as if “I’m flowing with life”, even though the action is not a pleasant one, e.g. I had inspirations to just do nothing (my mind freaked out, of course), or letting my emotions come up without resisting them (again, mind freaks out), but when you just “know” that this is the right thing to do, you can do it a lot easier.