Action vs Motion
Are you taking action or going through the motions?
Action vs Motion: I have been thinking about this important distinction a lot today.
It started during a regular call on a cross-border project that has been stuck for a while, without any meaningful progress. It looked like we were doing a lot: multiple calls and exchanges of emails for almost two months now (!) Yet somehow we managed to move just a few inches closer to the objective. We were going through the motions. During that call, I had to remind everyone, myself included, what we wanted to achieve and insisted on committing to concrete next actions.
So what distinguishes action and motion? I like the definition from James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits”:
When you’re in motion, you’re planning and strategizing and learning. Those are all good things, but they don’t produce a result. Action, on the other hand, is the type of behavior that will deliver an outcome. If I outline twenty ideas for articles I want to write, that’s motion. If I actually sit down and write an article, that’s action. If I search for a better diet plan and read a few books on the topic, that’s motion. If I actually eat a healthy meal, that’s action.
The problem with motion is that often it feels like action, disguises itself like action, and for a reason: motion creates an illusion that a lot of stuff is happening. I remember myself two-three years ago, I was quite excited about an entrepreneurial idea, I talked a lot about it, but did very little to make it actually happen. Talking feels nice. You do a mental accounting of all the things you have planned, read about, learned about. You feel enthusiastic about it, you tell your friends about your new insights that “it’s just what I need at this moment in time”. But if there is no concrete action that follows, an action that actually gets you closer to what you want to achieve, it gets you nowhere, it’s the same old going through the motions. Zero walking the talk.
The reason we often prefer motion to action is surprisingly simple. Back to James Clear:
If motion doesn’t lead to results, why do we do it? Sometimes we do it because we actually need to plan or learn more. But more often than not, we do it because motion allows us to feel like we’re making progress without running the risk of failure. Most of us are experts at avoiding criticism. It doesn’t feel good to fail or to be judged publicly, so we tend to avoid situations where that might happen. And that’s the biggest reason why you slip into motion rather than taking action: you want to delay failure. It’s easy to be in motion and convince yourself that you’re still making progress. You think, “I’ve got conversations going with four potential clients right now. This is good. We’re moving in the right direction.” Or, “I brainstormed some ideas for that book I want to write. This is coming together.” Motion makes you feel like you’re getting things done. But really, you’re just preparing to get something done. When preparation becomes a form of procrastination, you need to change something. You don’t want to merely be planning. You want to be practicing.
In another discussion today, when looking back at 2019, a friend has recognized that, despite his big plans for the year, and lots of things that have happened, he has remained largely static. Avoidance of failure? Most likely so.
So how to get from motion to action?
First, we need to be honest with ourselves and recognize when we have been going through the motions. Journaling over an extended period of time helps make it crystal clear. To quote another favorite book of mine, “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton Christensen:
You can talk all you want about having a strategy for your life, understanding motivation, and balancing aspirations with unanticipated opportunities. But ultimately, this means nothing if you do not align those with where you actually expend your time, money, and energy. In other words, how you allocate your resources is where the rubber meets the road. Real strategy—in companies and in our lives—is created through hundreds of everyday decisions about where we spend our resources. As you’re living your life from day to day, how do you make sure you’re heading in the right direction? Watch where your resources flow. If they’re not supporting the strategy you’ve decided upon, then you’re not implementing that strategy at all.
Second, the only escape from the motion is through action, through walking the talk. The Next-Action Principle helps when an objective seems too big or intimidating.
Questions to ask yourself for career transition:
Looking backward: for the past period, have I become closer to my objectives? Or have I created an illusion of action, not achieving anything meaningful? What actions have yielded a meaningful outcome?
Looking forward: think critically about whether the next actions you have planned are real actions or motion disguised as action?
Image: Rawpixel