“Dreams don't work unless you take action. The surest way to make your dreams come true is to live them.” - Roy T. Bennett

It is impossible to achieve success in life just by thinking OR acting. You have to do BOTH. Most people are busy in actions; either studying, working, playing, socializing or in today’s time, scrolling and swiping. Spending time to plan your day or make a to-do-list does not count towards ‘thinking’. That’s preparing for actions, and not cultivating thoughts. Thinking is also not emptying your mind or meditating using any techniques. To me, thinking is just letting your mind wander around, leaving it free to catch anything that interests you and ponder over it as an idea. What grabs your attention will depend on your personal interest, career paths, or even social issues around you. Thinking is all about questioning and finding out more on topics/ issues of your interest. This inquisitiveness may lead to undiscovered answers, create solutions to unsolved problems and opportunities for the future growth.

So, when was the last time you took a break to think? And I mean actual break from your routine life?

For me, it was 2017 when I stumbled upon the book “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. This book blew my mind away, as it explained the power of thinking. At the time I was swamped with work, at times working 17-18 hours a day. Frustrated with repetitiveness of work and routine, I just called my entire team one day and told them I was taking a break from architecture practice. I poured out my frustration and told them I wanted to focus on something different for a while. I used to go to office but didn’t talk much with anyone and just kept jotting down my thoughts, went for long walks and kept pondering on anything that came across my mind.

One of the ideas on the radar was to develop platform for professional training and career guidance. I always loved to teach and share knowledge. I have been interacting with students and young architects for few years now. We had conducted one seminar series in beginning of 2017 and were looking to create some sort of learning platform for continual education. However, the idea was hazy and with no time to think, it always went on a back burner. So, I used the time off to develop the concept and combine our professional knowledge with passion for sharing knowledge through teaching. And that was the beginning of Alternate Angle Academy as a formal knowledge sharing platform and also paved way for WOARCHITECT. By the way, it didn’t take months to work on this... Just 3-4 days. That’s all! We already knew what was needed and it was just a matter of putting things on paper. I just needed to clear my head and organize my thoughts. Within a week we had a blueprint ready to be discussed with our team and other stakeholders. We completed all the paperwork and since 2018, Academy has conducted training programs, online courses, workshops and more. WOARCHITECT was launched in 2020 as a career guidance and connection portal for Architects and AEC Industry.

So, what was needed? Just a break from routine, dedicated time to think and back it with action.

How important is Thinking & Action?

Let us understand the profound impact of Thinking & Action together on our life, professionally as well as personally. The best feeling for anyone is of satisfaction or content because of success achieved in life. On the other hand, the worst feeling is a sense of failure leading to dejection. These two opposite feelings are not just mindsets. They are actually results of our thinking and actions. Let me explain this further.

As the diagram represents, ‘Thinking’ and ‘Not Thinking’ be along one axis and ‘Action’ and ‘Inaction’ on another axis. The 4 quadrants that are formed are the mental zones than define our professional and personal mindset.

Depression Zone:

Failing to come up with new ideas, inability to improve upon existing ones or unable to learn new concepts to improve our thinking, leads to depressing thoughts. The mental block not only paralyzes our mind but also affects our ability to act. We see ourselves as failures leading to dejection. This poisonous combination of not thinking and not acting leads to depression, negatively impacting a person’s professional and personal life – which are directly related to each other.

Compromise Zone:

Most people are in this zone where they are following the routine of life by acting upon it and checking off their to-do-lists, just to start over again the next day. This is mindless action which leads you to follow someone else’s dream. It helps you make a living for yourself but fulfill other’s vision. By acting without thinking, you are renting your mind to actions that do not contribute to your own growth to the fullest of your potential. Since you follow only one predictable path in this zone, your growth here is limited.  

Procrastination Zone:

We have been part of many dinner conversations, where someone talks about their next big idea. Their concepts are fascinating and excites us to see how it will shape up once they develop it. But unfortunately, you meet them again and they are still talking about the same or another idea. There is no action to follow through initial thoughts. Lot of people dream, but fail to act upon them. Such ideas, become just passing thoughts as they are not captured and nurtured. Inaction causes stagnation and frustration and may push you in depression zone, if not checked or acted upon in time.

Breakthrough Zone:

This is the zone we all want to be in! Thoughts and Ideas backed by Action. Most entrepreneurs are in this zone. They think and act simultaneously. The success ratio may vary depending on the merits of ideas and competency of actions, but there will be results that are positive for sure. In this zone, the mind is alert and agile while the actions are visible and accountable. If a person is not seeing desired results, s/he will develop ideas / thoughts further or change / modify actions. Working on thoughts and actions simultaneously puts you in breakthrough zone leading to success and satisfaction.

Now that you understand the consequences of Thinking / Not thinking and Action / Inaction, let us see how you can help yourself to improve your careers and personal life.

Step 1:

Start with a self-audit and assess which zone you belong. Be honest with yourself and accept what you see as a result. You may be in your worst mindset, the depression zone, but there is still a silver lining. Try to move yourself to compromise zone. Start taking actions. Its ok to follow a known path until you find your own. Action is anytime better than Inaction.

Step 2:

Spend some time with yourself. Without gadgets, without people, without even a book or pen. Browse through your mind and try to avoid thinking of all the things you do as your daily or work chores. Those will get done no matter what. What will not happen is self-analysis and idea development unless you deliberately give it time. You may have once thought of starting a new project, write an article, create some art, anything that was or is your dream. Start nurturing it in that time with yourself. Sell that idea to yourself first. As Robin Sharma said – “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”

Step 3:

Take baby steps and act upon your dreams. You might be aiming for a promotion, bigger project, more money, anything that is your goal or end result. You have already achieved one part of it by thinking about it. The next part is to act upon it. Develop ways to achieve your goals. Upskill through learning, take up work that gives you relevant exposure and experience, network and communicate with people who might be knowledgeable about what you want to do. These action lead to validation and refinement of your thoughts. You are able to achieve your results, or pivot in other direction based on results of your actions. No matter what the results, you will be always in a healthy mindset of chasing success and will be satisfied that you are giving your best. You will enter the Breakthrough Zone.

At the end of the day, it is up to you to decide which zone you want to belong. To Think or Not and to Act or Not is in your hands. You may find your own path, or you may follow someone else’s path, your actions will take you forward in your career and life. And if you can combine your actions with your thoughts and ideas, you will taste success and satisfaction which we all crave for.