25 Take Action Quotes That Will Help You FINALLY Bring Your Ideas to Life

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Excerpt: To know and not to do is the same as not to know. Read our 25 Take Action Quotes and muster up the courage TO DO something about your ideas!

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Introduction: The best time to act was yesterday, the next best time is now

How many times have you come up with brilliant, fool-proof plans in your head, only to realize a few months later that you never did anything with them and that the world is exactly the same as it was before your brilliant idea? Frustrating isn’t it?

And then have you ever thought about how far along you could’ve been in developing your idea if you had started working on it at it’s inception? Even more frustrating isn’t it? If you can relate, then the following insight is for you.

Here’s what this observation can teach us: The best time to start working on ideas is right when you have them! …And if you didn’t (or weren’t able to at the time) the next best time is right now. If you don’t take any action on ideas then it shows that you’re still in your head, uncommitted and unresolved.

If you make the decision to “eat healthier,” for example, then back that up with action! Plan out (and write down) your meals for the week, go food shopping, or sign up for coaching with someone who can guide you.

If you make the decision to spend more time with family, then back that up with action! Set up dates and times when you’re going to make some quality time or just spontaneously gather them up and see what you all can do right now! Maybe even try to get a day off work or take a vacation day to prove to your family that they are your top priority.

If you make the decision to watch less TV, then sell your TV!! …Or cancel your cable or streaming subscriptions! You can’t watch TV if you don’t have any channels… or no TV at all!! Prove to yourself (and your inner circle) that you’re serious about your decisions and get in the habit of taking IMMEDIATE ACTION on your ideas!

Below, you’ll find our list of 25 Take Action quotes that will help you FINALLY take the first step to achieving whatever it is you have going on in your head. Let us know in the comment section below which quote was your favorite and what you’re going TO DO with that quote’s insight! Remember, as long as it’s in your head, it isn’t going to do anybody any good (especially not you) – take action!

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The List: 25 Take Action Quotes That Will Help You FINALLY Bring Your Ideas to Life

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn’t coming up with something no one has ever thought of before.  The hard part is actually executing the thing you’ve thought of.  The devil doesn’t need an advocate.  The brave need supporters, not critics.”

Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?

“There is one path in the world that none can walk but you.  Where does it lead?  Don’t ask, walk!”

Friedrich Nietzsche, via How To Live A Good Life

“Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.”

Vaclav Havel

“Many people think they lack motivation when what they really lack is clarity.  It is not always obvious when and where to take action.  Some people spend their entire lives waiting for the time to be right to make an improvement.”

James Clear, Atomic Habits

“It is so easy to make a life and a career out of sitting in the bleachers… There are people who have amazing gifts, who could make the world an incredibly better place, who won’t put their work out there for [fear of judgement].  And that’s a loss.  And whether we know what that work was or not, we miss it and grieve it every day.   There are songs that we need to hear, there are stories that need to be told, that we’ll never see or know because there are so many people out there who are so reflectively cynical and critical and mean-spirited.  I don’t like it.”

Brené Brown, via How To Live A Good Life

“You may never know what results come from your actions.  But if you take no action, there will be no results.”

Mohandas Gandhi, via The Way of the Seal

“Most learning, especially most organizational learning, occurs through trial and error.  Error occurs whether you want it to or not.  Error is difficult to avoid.  It’s not clear that research or preparation have an enormous impact on error, especially marketing error.  Error is clearly not in short supply.  Trial, on the other hand, is quite scarce, especially in some organizations.  People mistakenly believe that one way to successfully avoid error is to avoid trial.  We need more trial.”

Seth Godin, Whatcha Gonna Do With That Duck?

“To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily.  To not dare is to lose oneself.”

Soren Kierkegaard, via The Way of the Seal

“Things flow to you when you do your part first.”

Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game

“Any plan is better than no plan, and a good plan executed now is far better than a perfect plan executed too late.”

Mark Divine, The Way of the Seal

“Talking and doing fight for the same resources.  Research shows that while goal visualization is important, after a certain point our mind begins to confuse it with actual progress.  The same goes for verbalization.  Even talking aloud to ourselves while we work through difficult problems has been shown to significantly decrease insight and breakthroughs.  After spending so much time thinking, explaining, and talking about a task, we start to feel that we’ve gotten closer to achieving it.  Or worse, when things get tough, we feel we can toss the whole project aside because we’ve given it our best try, although of course we haven’t.”

Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy

“Life is about not knowing and then doing something anyway.  All of life is like this.  It never changes.  Even when you’re happy.  Even when you’re farting fairy dust.  Even when you win the lottery and buy a small fleet of Jet Skis, you still won’t know what the hell you’re doing.  Don’t ever forget that.  And don’t ever be afraid of that.”

Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

“Most answers reveal themselves through doing, not thinking.”

Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

“There is vitality, a life force, energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique.  And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost.  The world will not have it.  It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions.  It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open.  You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work.  You have to keep yourself open and aware of the urges that motivate you.  Keep the channel open…”

Martha Graham, via How To Live A Good Life

“Your actions reveal how badly you want something.  If you keep saying something is a priority but you never act on it, then you don’t really want it.  It’s time to have an honest conversation with yourself.  Your actions reveal your true motivations.”

James Clear, Atomic Habits

“Sir Francis Bacon said, ‘Knowledge is power.’ He was right, but he forgot one word to make the phrase fool-proof. ‘Applied knowledge is power.’ If you know and you don’t do, you don’t know. It is as simple as that.”

Joachim de Posada, Don’t Eat the Marshmallow… Yet!

“Only action determines my value in the market place and to multiply my value I will multiply my actions.  I will walk where the failure fears to walk.  I will work when the failure seeks to rest.  I will talk when the failure remains silent.  I will call on ten who can buy my goods while the failure makes grand plans to call on one.  I will say it is done before the failure says it is too late.  I will act now.”

Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World

“Never has there been a map, however carefully executed to detail and scale, which carried its owner over even one inch of ground.  Never has there been a parchment of law, however fair, which prevented one crime.  Never has there been a scroll, even such as the one I hold, which earned so much as a penny or produced a single word of acclamation.  Action, alone, is the tinder which ignites the map, the parchment, this scroll, my dreams, my plans, my goals, into a living force.  Action is the food and drink which will nourish my success.”

Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World

“Action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s also the cause of it.”

Mark Mason, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

“The happiness you are searching for comes through reflecting on the worthy aims you are dedicated to achieving and then taking action daily to advance them.  This is a direct application of the timeless philosophy which prescribes that those things which are most important should never be sacrificed to those things which are the least important.”

Robin S. Sharma, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari

“Action is about living fully. Inaction is the way that we deny life. Inaction is sitting in front of the television every day for years because you are afraid to be alive and to take the risk of expressing what you are. Expressing what you are is taking action.”

Don Miguel Ruiz, The Four Agreements

“All life is either moving forward and evolving or shrinking back and dying.  If you want to evolve in your own life, you have to push through the obstacles instead of running from them.  Obstacles and challenges are the agents of growth.  Nobody gets to be large and in charge without facing challenges and moving through them.  Birth is messy, painful, scary, uncertain, and freaky.  Birth is also a glorious miracle that leads to new life.  If you want the new life you say you want, you have to do the work instead of just studying and discussing and wishing and wanting.”

Jen Sincero, You Are a Badass

“The sexiest thing in the entire world is being really smart. And being thoughtful, and being generous.  Everything else is crap, I promise you.  It’s just crap that people try to sell to you to make you feel like less. So don’t buy it. Be smart, be thoughtful and be generous.  Everything around us that we call life was made up of people that are no smarter than you. And you can build your own things, you can build your own life that other people can live in. So build a life — don’t just live one, build one.“

Ashton Kutcher

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

“The most pernicious aspect of procrastination is that it can become a habit. We don’t just put off our lives today; we put them off till our deathbed. Never forget: This very moment, we can change our lives. There never was a moment, and never will be, when we are without the power to alter our destiny.”

Steven Pressfield, The War of Art