“Lots of people have good ideas but the masters become masters because they had the courage and conviction to act on ideas; What makes greatness is white hot action around red hot ideas,” Robin Sharma.  I shared in my Sunday Gratitude that there is a different way of thinking when we get to a certain level.  After a certain time we need to do more than what we are told, we need to do more than perpetuate the machine.  We need to create new options and opportunities for ourselves, those around us, and for the business.  Expansion happens with new ideas targeting new issues or concerns.  It requires action in a different way.  We can become excellent at what we do, becoming an subject matter expert on anything with time and practice.  But to excel and go beyond that is to develop and create ways to expand that subject, to see it in a new light and find ways that it can apply to more people or apply to them in a different way. Part of becoming a master of our field is going after something new—knowing how to develop rather than simply produce.

Action can be a scary thing in the respect that action has the potential to change everything.  Action has the potential to make things different than how they are—or to expose how things really are.  Our lives are skewed by our perception so we are trained to act in a specific way in specific circumstances.  That is skewed even further when we throw in the perception based on our personal experiences as well.  So when an alternate approach seems the most logical, it’s natural to be a bit leery about taking that first step. Masters also don’t let the bumps in the road deter them either.  It’s the persistence to keep going through the learning curve and to keep trying again.  The spirit of collaboration and cooperation toward developing an idea is the persistence to keep going while shifting as needed.  It’s adaptability.  In short, it’s speed toward taking action and patience to develop the idea.  Stepping out of the prescribed course and recommending another path takes courage.  To act on it indicates a boldness and conviction in the belief of the idea we have.  We became subject matter experts through repetition and practice—and seeing where things could be improved.  We took chances to streamline our workflow.  But real mastery of the subject comes from taking our expertise and developing it into something more.  We release the fear of trying something new for the potential of something greater.  Courage and confidence come from taking action on those ideas and we naturally develop them—and in turn we learn and come up with more ideas and then we have the courage to follow those and so on.  Life doesn’t pause—it moves continuously and we need to take action when we are inspired versus when the time is right.  The time will never be right for everything.  We simply need to act on it when we have the feeling.  The difference between success and living the same life over and over again is the courage to take that action.  Create a new story.  Don’t just tell it, live it.