By: Douglas J Utberg

The world that we live in is not short on information.  In fact, the preponderance of information that we are constantly bombarded with can create a state of constant confusion that scares us into inaction.  In the martial arts, this phenomenon is referred to as the “chattering monkey mind.”  The key to success lies in filtering down to the useful information and then decisively taking action.

This is especially important to remember since the preponderance of success and financial literature revolves around ‘systems’ and ‘strategy.’  This is especially true if you have ever suffered from insomnia and run across an ‘infomercial’ on late-night television that advertises a ‘risk free’ system to make profits with ‘no money down.’  It can certainly be fun to laugh at some of these marketing gimmicks, but even the best strategy in the world is completely useless unless you are willing to act.

Action involves incurring the risk of failure and criticism from friends & family.  The factor that most financial books and infomercial systems tend to under-emphasize is the important of taking the leap.  The hitch is that the action must be guided by intelligent thought.  Thought without action produces no results, because the strategies are never implemented.  Action without thought is effectively the same as gambling, and only works if you are in exactly the right place at exactly the right time with exactly the right system . . . and even then it may not work the next time you try it.

The proverbial ‘key’ lies in being what Bill Fitzpatrick refers to as a “Thinking person of action” . . . namely, somebody that thinks actively, absorbs information quickly, and acts decisively when the opportunity presents itself.  In order to achieve this kind of co-existence between thought and action, it requires that your mind be constantly trained on thoughts of opportunities so that it is always ready to act.