Intent and Action

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.
~ J.W. Goethe

Pretty much any spirit worker will tell you that they’ve had at least one client who simply refuses to acknowledge this saying. It usually goes something like this:

Client: I need a reading about getting a job. I’ve been looking, but haven’t found anything.

Reader: Okay, give me an idea of what you’ve been doing.

Client: I did a candle spell, and wrote the coolest poem for it! Perfectly rhymed, ABACABAC. Eighteen verses!

Reader: How much time each day do you spend looking?

Client: And then I made this really cool prosperity charm! It has a replica historic coin, and everything!

Reader: Have you had someone help you update your resume?

Client: No, but a friend of mine told me about this interesting spell he read about—

Reader: To redo your resume?

Client: No, it calls on angels to help you find a job!

Reader: So, your resume—

Client: I know about all that other stuff, like resumes, and they’re not important. It’s all about using magic to get the job!

Reader (internally): Okay, then, it’s one of those readings.

You can know all the technical details of something, but if you don’t put that knowledge to work, it doesn’t do you any good.

You can light all the candles you want, compose all the spells you want, create all the charms you want; but if you don’t actually take action to move toward your goal, it’s not going to happen. Period.

Gather information. Consider options. Make a decision. Take action.

You don’t have to have a painstakingly detailed 100-point plan in order to start. You need some kind of plan, because getting from where you are to where you want to be is not one long improvisational exercise. But you do have to take action.

Your plan will change. You will make adjustments as your circumstances change, or your time and energy and interest ebb and flow. Perhaps your goal itself changes, and then the plan is replaced by a new map to reach a new goal. But you do have to take action.

But it doesn’t matter how much or how little you plan if you don’t take action. 

You have to do something in order to achieve something.

Decide, then do. Take action.