Here's an interesting quote to ponder for a few minutes...

"The decline of our personal momentum might be the great untold story of our time. That electronic media, incoming, 'breaking', please reply, didn't you see that, react right now, click here... this has a cost. And the cost is our internal drive to initiate instead of to just react." (from Seth Godin's blog)

Think about the truth of this statement in your own life. Do you see a decline or lack in your "internal drive to initiate, instead of just react?"

It's so easy to lose this drive!

The world is always tempting us to live in reactive mode, always responding to the needs that spontaneously (and continuously!) seem to crop up around us. But we know there are so many things we want to be doing, should be doing. Loving and serving the world with our uniqueness often requires initiating, not simply reacting.

What is the cost of things we're not doing, not initiating?

### Stress and sadness While initiating and moving forward on projects carries a certain amount of stress, it's usually the healthy kind of stress. The stretching outside our comfort zone that grows us personally. But the not initiating often carries an unhealthy sort of stress, the stress of missed opportunities, guilt, and even sadness.

It's important to note that even a small amount of initiating around some of the things we've been setting aside as we react can greatly reduce this stress. We don't have to complete projects -- just make progress!

### The world loses out When we don't initiate and create and make progress on the unique adventure that God is calling on us to live out, the world misses out on whatever we could have created. Who could have benefited from your initiating, from your creation of something new? What did they miss while you were simply reacting to your life?

### The Not-Doing list Spend a bit of time thinking about your Not-Doing list (instead of your To-Do list). Our To-Do lists are always crammed, and usually most of it is about putting out fires and filling in holes. Reacting. Maintaining. Very little of it is typically about initiating. About creating. What's on your Not-Doing list, if you were honest? What are the things that you never seem to make time for, as you spend your day reacting?

### Think differently We are all called to love and serve, and part of serving is meeting needs as they arise. But can you also think a bit differently about the needs around you, and see if you could actually be creating something that meets needs, rather than simply reacting to them? Perhaps you could serve many more people if you took some time to initiate something new.

Perhaps it's time to stop the crazy pace of bailing water out of a leaky boat and take a minute to figure out how to patch the leak.

If you'd like a quick method to ensure you're initiating and making forward progress every week, check out the download under the "dig deeper" section below.