Motion vs Action – The Mistake That Affects Productivity

by Bharat Jhala-
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While working for the attainment of the goals, what is the one mistake that most people are making and which affects their productivity in a great detail? These goals may be set by you for your personal growth or may be set by your boss for the project you are working on.

Most people are not aware of this mistake because they believe that they are busy doing right things and that they are actually making progress. However, in reality there is no concrete result to see or show, and therefore, you are not only confused but frustrated as well.

And without knowing the cause of this mistake, it is also difficult to fix this mistake.

So, what is this mistake?

That mistake is confusing your MOTIONS for your ACTIONS when you are working hard to achieve your desired outcome.

Let’s understand it with few examples:

If my goal is to reduce weight, and I keep looking for the best and effective weight loss exercise and diet on internet or in books that is MOTION, but if I actually start running in the early morning, or quit on sweets that is ACTION.
If my goal is to get an admission in MBA and I keep collecting the best available GCET material from the market and keep reading it without proper system that is MOTION, but if I actually start writing practice papers and keep working on my area of improvements that is ACTION.
If my goal is to build a down payment for my new home or saving money for emergency fund. And I keep researching on best investment product to invest, or if I keep reading on financial products and think or debate on bank vs stock market investment that is MOTION, but if I actually open a separate bank account and setup an automatic money transfer of 500 dollar on 1’st of every month that is ACTION.
If I want to develop a new writing habit, and if I note down 50 different ideas on which I want to write an article that is MOTION, but if I actually set up one blog and start writing and publishing articles every week that is ACTION.
If I want to read 10 books in a year, and if I keep researching the best books to read, or best authors to read, or keep looking for the best sellers of the year that is all MOTION, but if I pick up any book and start reading 5 pages a day that is ACTION.
If I want to start a business and if I keep exploring ideas and discuss about different passive income business options that is all MOTION, but if I pick up one idea and start executing that is ACTION.

Do you see the difference now?

Motion vs Action:

Motion is not a bad thing. It helps us to research, prepare, learn, plan or form a strategy. These all adds value to our knowledge base. However, no matter how great strategy we have formed, the strategy itself alone will never produce the result we want to see.

No matter how good research we are doing on the best investment product, unless we start investing our money into that product, we won’t see the emergency fund built when actually emergency knocks our door, as emergency always comes without prior notice.

No matter how best we know which exercise is helpful to reduce belly fat or which diet is helpful to increase metabolism that alone will never get us in our best physical shape. We actually have to start doing that exercise and start eating that healthy food to see the difference.

Only Action creates result, and not the Motion.

Why Do We Engage in Motion?

If Motion doesn’t help create the result, why at all then we engage our time, money, energy and effort into Motion in first place?

As I mentioned above, Motion helps us to learn, prepare and plan, and that’s the reason why we are indulging into it. But more often than not, we are doing it because we want to make ourselves and others believe that we are actually making progress and that too without running the risk of failure (because actually we are not taking any actions anyways). That’s why we avoid being in action but engage ourselves in motion. This is the easiest and most comfortable way to convince yourself that you are actually making progress.

The other reason is we don’t want to be judged or criticized by others for our actual results. For instance, I would feel more comfortable talking about the ideas on which I might write the best book one day than actually sit at one place and start writing it.

Next time when your boss asks for the progress report on the task you are doing, observe the language of your answer. Are you stating activities you are doing or reporting milestones you have achieved?

Activity is not the synonym for Achievement.

Process vs Progress:

The concept of Motion vs Action can also be understood with the concept of Process vs Progress.

Process is the route we take to make Progress towards our end goal. Process and Progress both are very important however; the important question is what makes process and progress effective? The answer is INTENTION. Process and Progress are only effective when the intentions of both are aligned towards getting things done.

Being Effective and/or Being Efficient:

One might be very efficient at “Motion” but that cannot be counted for “Actions” and it doesn’t help making valuable progress or achieving desired results.

Doing ineffective things efficiently or efficient things ineffectively doesn’t provide any value at all. How then can we make sure that we are both effective and efficient doing the right things right ways at the same time? Read on.

Building Mindfulness:

Building mindfulness is the key to be effective and efficient.

If we are alert about what we are doing we will be able to help ourselves understand the difference between being in motion vs being in action. Not only that we would also be able to decide when to be in motion, when to come out of it, and when to be in action to strike the balance between two.

Mindfulness has three core elements in it: Intention, Attention and Attitude.

Intention: Intention is why we are doing what we are doing. Our intentions are reflected into our goal, vision, or aspiration. Intention or aspiration gives us the direction, purpose and reason to our Actions. And it is the Intentions which make our Actions great.

Having clarity on our intentions makes the Process and Progress in align and then every Process will take us one step closer to our Progress.

Attention: To see things clearly we must be able to pay attention to what are we doing right now.

Paying attention involves observations and experiencing.

This alert attention is not something you have to do with constant stress or vigilance but it’s a relaxed alertness through which we are giving deep and penetrating attention to what we are doing.

Attitude: How intentionally we’re paying attention to everything forms our attitude. Our attitude should be directed towards achievement of the end result. And it is rightly said that your attitude ultimately will decide your altitude of success.

So to be effective and efficient both at the same time clarify your INTENTIONS being mindful of your aspirations or goals and then focus your ATTENTION on achieving your goals with an ATTITUDE of deep observation. This way the learning process would get right and would allow you to make continual progress overtime with persistence.

Instant Mindfulness: Is there any way to develop mindfulness instantly? Yes. Our mind is designed in such a way that it cannot ignore questions. So to bring your mind into present moment ask this magical question to your mind – “What am I doing right now?” – and it will instantly bring your mind into present moment with full awareness. Try it yourself and see.

So next time, when you don’t see results after working hard for your goals, ask yourself: “Am I busy being in Motion or taking Action?”

Have fun!
Bharat Jhala

P.S. The idea of writing this post came from an amazing blog of James Clear. I am so much impressed the way he conveyed the message so convincingly and impressively.