The following is copyrighted material from "Life Skills Self-Helpapedia" (1991) and has been used in client handout sheets.

A CALL TO ACTION

Giving activity assignments is a common occurance in brief psychotherapy. Activity assignments are often based on the notion that folks require both listening to their inner promptings and taking action on what is important. Many have recognized the profound and simple wisdom of doing what the moment requires regardless of how we initially feel. The alarm goes off and we have to head out to work.

Over and over we observe how feelings change when we are doing something important. Life calls us to take out the trash, feed the dog and cat, call friends, go out on a date, or follow through on a work assignment. Taking required action can quickly alter initial fears, emotional paralysis, and negative and self-absorbed trance states. In many instances doing what the moment requires is a keystone in overcoming depression and severe anxiety. Taking required action can create profound emotional shifts and remake our perspectives on ourselves and reality. Further, important actions can provide a sense of control and directly impresses upon us the great power to do and to make changes. Here are the steps to a "Call to Action":

(1) Our feelings and intuition tell us something important better be done.

(2) We give this prompting due consideration. Had we better do this? A bit later or right away?

(3) Do we require any planning or should we take care of business now? If we don't require much planning, then we should just get up and do what's required immediately. Do it!

TIPS ON A CALL TO ACTION

*If you feel overwhelmed by emotional paralysis, then do what you need to do right away. This will shift you quickly out of emotional paralysis. Unless you're in a body cast all excuses are unacceptable. Get up and do it. Real living ends for people who give into emotional paralysis. The truth is we can move our arms and legs and lift our hands. We are making a choice here. The emotional overload dissapates after we've taken action.

*You can choose to listen to anxiety and false lethergy or you can do what you better do. Which do you think will feel better over the long haul? NO MATTER HOW YOU INITIALLY FEEL, ALWAYS DO WHAT YOU BETTER DO.

*You can stand your feelings. Truth be told you can stand any feelings even the most severe panic and fear. Ask yourself: Could you stand your feelings for 1 billion dollars or true love or a highly valuable reward of your choice? If you answered yes that presupposes you could stand your feelings even without rewards (your life generally gets better when you take important action).

*List 8 activities you deem important right now. Set a time and do them. Notice how much better you feel and how much more empowered you are.

*You needn't even clear any beliefs or stuck emotions around these important actions. You can clear after you take action if you still need to do this work.

*Fear of rejection can be cleared after you've taken action. Action tends to burn out fears of rejection over time.

*If you have a pattern of stuckness, the beliefs and emotions involved in this stuckness may be cleared to make sailing easier in the future. Still all we need to do is to get up and do the required action. We can chose doing over giving our attention to feelings. Those feelings change when we take required action.

*Never wait for inspiration, the right moment, or motivation. These all come from being absorbed in the moments provided by taking action.

*Feelings are strongly influenced by our activities. You know what being deeply absorbed in something is like. You know what a feeling of completion is like. Compare those two feelings to guilt infested procrastination and false paralysis. Which would you choose?

* Taking important action falls under the category of "Stuff that works".

* When action is required, shift your attention from your inner life to the task at hand. If you sense too much analysis of the situation and planning, then go ahead and do what you need to do.