80% Action, 20% Thinking: The Four Stages We Must Work Through to Create Change
A man sits alone on a rock.
He’s leaning forward with his back hunched over. His elbow rests on his right knee and his palm curves inward to support his chin. His mouth is thrust into his knuckles and his eyes cast a downward gaze.
He’s visibly absorbed in thought and contemplation.
This is not a man I’m describing. This is The Thinker, the iconic sculptor by French Artist Auguste Rodin. It’s a 6-foot statue cast in 1904 that sits in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in Paris.
I paint an image of the sculptor with words that describe a person, because, quite honestly, The Thinker is a masterpiece that is so real in its depictions of the physical and mental toll the burden of our excessive thinking bestows on us.
You see, whenever we want to create change in our life—whether it be as bold as entertaining the idea of a starting a side project or as simple as considering buying a guitar to learn a new musical instrument—we engage in thought.
Sometimes this thought simply crosses our mind as a cloud passes through the sky. Sometimes it lingers a little longer and we start ruminating on it. Other times, we get so excited about it that we decide to research and expand on it so we can evaluate how easy it would be to implement it. And occasionally, we might go all out and take action on pursuing it.
Those are the four stages we go through in order to create the change we wish to see in our life.
First, we have a ‘thought’.
Then, we contemplate it.
Third, we put the idea into motion.
And finally, we take action on it.
The Four Stages of Creating Change
Consider the idea of starting a new side project:
You’re having lunch with your friend and complaining to her about how it’s so hard to find sustainable yoga clothes that don’t cost you a fortune these days.
She nods in agreement and then turns to you and says: “Why don’t you start a sustainable and affordable yoga clothing line? You always mention to me how one day you’d like to launch your own label. Perhaps this is a good time to do it?”
A thought is triggered.
You like the idea.
The sound of it draws a smile on your face. Now, you’re curious. You’re imagining what you’d name the brand—you’re imagining the possibilities. You get excited. “Yeah, that’s a cool idea, maybe I should,” you reply back.
You decide to sleep on it.
The next day, you wake up and go to work.
You sit at your desk and sip your morning coffee. You run through the meetings, reply to a bunch of emails, and finish the day strong with another brilliant online yoga class (we’re still in quarantine—remember?).
And right there and then, it hits you once again—“Why don’t I start my own brand?”
You like that idea—you really do.
Now you’ve arrived to stage two: Contemplation.
That’s where you begin to bounce the idea around in your head.
At this point, the idea is just a thought that is being entertained. Nothing less, nothing more. The moment you open a laptop and start doing your research, reading up on sustainability, and learning more about the yoga fashion business, you’ve just entered the motion stage.
This is where things start moving.
At this stage of the journey, the thought is still what it is: a thought, an idea, a consideration that’s being evaluated. But what truly creates change, what shifts the status quo—what moves you from what is to what could be—is action.
Taking action.
That’s when you invest the money to start your business. That’s when you sign the contracts. That’s when your website is live for everyone to visit.
For the lack of a better term, that’s when shit gets real.
The Rule for Creating Change: Spend 80% of Your Time in Action
So let’s recap.
Here are the four stages through which change is created:
Stage 1: Thought. Thousands of thoughts cross your mind on a given day. Thoughts don’t create change, they spark them.
Stage 2: Contemplation. Once you give attention to a specific thought, you’ve triggered it. You’re engaging with it. You’re feeding energy to it. That’s the contemplation stage. Still no action, just more focused thinking.
Stage 3: Motion. Motion is when things start moving. When you’re in motion, you’re reading, learning, planning, preparing and strategizing.
Stage 4: Action. Taking action is where the magic happens. This is where you execute. This is where you begin the physical practice of creating change.
What exactly is the difference between motion and action?
Motion is the preparation phase.
Action is the practice phase.
Motion facilitates action, but action is the behavior that delivers your desired outcome.
Planning the articles you want to write in a given week is motion. Sitting down on your chair to write those articles—that’s action. Reading up on the best strength training exercises is ‘motion’. Going to the gym for a 30-minute workout—that’s action. Scoping out a list of ten prospective clients is ‘motion’. Picking up the phone to call them—that’s action. Searching for the best online Spanish school is ‘motion’. Registering for the class and showing up for it, week in, week out—that’s action.
Motion is the list of activities that makes you feel like you’re getting things done, when in fact, all that you’re doing is setting the stage to take action. You’re preparing yourself to get something done.
Action is when you leverage that motion to work toward the goal you wish to achieve.
See the difference?
Too often, we spend our time in the motion stage.
We download all the best writing apps, we brainstorm the ideas we want to write about, we create a writing schedule—all with the goal of writing our book—but we never sit down and write. We are in motion, but we don’t take action.
We find the best workout program, we buy a new set of gym clothes, we sign-up to a new gym membership—all with the goal of getting back into shape—but we don’t go to the gym to exercise. We are in motion, but we don’t take action.
If you want to create change in your life, you need to remember this one rule:
Spend 80% of your time in action, and 20% of your time in thought, contemplation, and motion.
The Thinker was lost in thought and contemplation.
That’s why Auguste Rodin depicts The Thinker as a figure who is clenched by the tenderness of his inner-struggles of thought.
As he explains:
“What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes.”
When we give all our attention to thoughts, contemplation, and motion, we devote all our energy to what we want to do, and thus, we are left with nothing to give to the act of doing what we want to do. Like The Thinker, we focus on intention but forget to take action. But as per the words of writer John Burroughs:
“The smallest deed is better than the greatest intention.”
So when it comes to creating the change you want to see in your life, consider this question: “Am I spending most of my time in intention (thoughts, contemplation, motion)? Or am I investing the majority of it engaging in action?”
Remember: Your goal is to spend 80% of your time in action, and 20% of your time in thought, contemplation, and motion.
As I always like to say:
Be not a thinker. Be a doer who thinks.