In the pursuit of self-help and spirituality, there’s a danger of becoming too theoretical, a perpetual student of personal growth. This can be a trick of the ego to keep you the same while giving you the illusion of change. It can also create a spiritual narcissism where we’re more committed to feeling warm and fuzzy and waxing philosophic than taking the kind of action that brings that philosophy to life. If you look at the great spiritual leaders (or any leaders) who have delivered real value to the world, they were deep thinkers, yes – but that was the foundation for bold, often earth-shaking action.

It’s easy to travel through our mind and think we’ve gotten somewhere. Setting bold intentions that lead to little or no action but give us the feeling of doing something. Climbing the mountaintop of inspired ideas before falling back into the valley of mediocrity. We can seem so decisive in our thoughts, but unless it’s followed up by action, it’s just self-indulgence and wishful thinking. “A real decision is measured by the fact that you’ve taken new action,” Tony Robbins said. “If there’s no action, you haven’t truly decided.”

So be a deep thinker, take the necessary time to set your intentions, define your vision, design your plan, and consider your options. But when that emerging impulse is calling you to action…
Act.
Boldly and decisively.

Then evaluate, reassess, dig deeper and get clearer if needed – and act again. You don’t need to have all the answers or complete visibility on what lies ahead. As Steve Maraboli says, “The road to success is always under construction.” If you face a mountain, no amount of thinking about it or imagining what’s on the other side is going to give you complete assurance.

There’s only one way to have absolute clarity on what is beyond that mountain – climb it.