Motion is the ideation, planning, and learning stage. The stage where you’re scrolling Pinterest, making vision boards, watching YouTube, listening to podcasts, reading books, etc.

Motion, as I well know, is a dangerous place to be. It feels like you’re doing something, but all the while, the needle isn’t moving an inch. Motion doesn’t produce any results. But it spikes your dopamine just as if it had, which is why it’s so easy to stay there: it feels good without any of the risk.

Action is scary. There’s real risk involved. What if people laugh? What if I fall flat on my face? What if it wasn’t what I thought it would be? What if I lose all of my money and end up destitute and have to resort to a life of crime?

So many variables. So many unknowns.

And it’s made me, possibly, the most stuck person in the world. Over the last few years, I’ve gotten so tired of my own shit. Like a broken record, or a dog that won’t stop barking. The delta between who I think I am in my head and my actually physical reality is as wide as ever, never closing.

I have this habit of always getting ready to live but never really living. Of getting high off of what I’m going to do, of how amazing it will be, but being too petrified to make it a reality. It’s a hard thing to navigate because it doesn’t really feel like fear until you look at it under a microscope. What you’re feeling is the warm-fuzzies of motion.

Here’s probably the most important thing I’ve learned during this process:

You’re going to have to do it scared.

Being scared is better than being in the same place year after year, always saying you’re going to do this-or-that.

Motion is what happens when you let fear into the driver’s seat. Action takes an insane amount of courage. Not courage to do anything in particular, but the courage to be yourself. To know who you are, and to be so secure in that that no matter what happens, you’ll be alright. The fear comes from attaching your identity and worth to an outcome. The courage comes from knowing you’ll still be you, no matter the outcome.

Don’t be me. Don’t put your life on hold. Stop researching. The only way to get good something is by doing it. Not thinking about the theory of it or shopping for what outfit you’re going to wear while you do it.

Let yourself be messy. Do something that makes you think you might puke from anxiety. These are moments where your life begins to expand dramatically. Feel the fear and do it anyway—fear is how you know you’re doing it right.

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Erin Nystrom • Motion vs. Action