Action as Choice Expressed Through Movement Toward a Goal: a Framework for Overcoming Inaction

I’ve reached a point in my life where I realize that everything I want sits on the other side of action. Earlier this week, I randomly recalled a computer science lecture on state machines. It’s inspired me draw a rough analogy to life and action-taking. At any point in life, one is in a particular state. Humans have a tendency to always project forward (see Martin Heidegger), so there is always a desired state we want to be in. Now, how does one bridge the gap between the current and desired state? In a State Machine, the edges between states are rules or paths that allow the system to move from one state to another. Something analogues happens in life, but we move from one state to another state through a series of actions. Therefore, to get clarity on what to do at any moment in life, one can pause and simply ask: what is my current state? What state do I want to be in? What are actions that will get me there? Then, simply execute those actions. This way, action can be grasped as the activity we do in order to move from a current unsatisfactory state to a new desired state in life. And any achievement in life can be seen as just a process of moving through states through action. But if action be so important (Jean-Paul Sartre stressed “There is no reality except in action”), then why are there still impediments to action-taking and how can they be overcome? First, I think it’s important to recognize that “action” is merely a word that generalizes a phenomenon that is really quite multifaceted and complex. I believe people often simplify action advice to “just do it”, because they can’t articulate well enough with it is, even if they can do it well enough. Second, I desire a more systematic approach rather than a mere shallow motivational speech. That type of advice seeks to arouse the emotions, which may work temporarily, but reason will inevitable regain its supremacy and we’re back to the initial problem. I believe I have come up with one systematic approach to action-taking that is promising. A Definition for Action Definitions are always a good place to start. As mentioned before, we use the word “action” frequently, but often as a generalization for phenomenon that is more complex than what appears on the surface. People who have an intuitive grasp of action benefit from the generalization, but people who struggle with it are left in the dark. If you just Google the definition of action, you get something like: This is not a very helpful definition, as it doesn’t clarify much. “Doing something” is just a synonym for “action.” It defines the word by restating it rather than explaining it. I faced the same challenge across other dictionaries, so I finally went through the rabbit hole of philosophy. Jean-Paul Sartre, a pioneer of existentialism, finally rescued me. His definition of action roughly goes: Action is choice expressed through movement toward a goal. Let’s test each component of this definition, to see whether it is all necessary. Movement alone does not constitute action. For instance, a hiccup is a movement but it wouldn’t be considered an action. In the same vein, making choices in one’s mind is not action, unless that choice is uttered to someone or expressed some other way through movement. For instance, you can imagine all you want the scenarios of asking your crush out, but none of those decisions in your mind mean anything in reality, unless there is movement accompanying the choice, such as actually walking up to your crush and asking them out. Then I was trying to think about whether it is possible to make a choice and express it through movement, but not toward any goal. I couldn’t come up with a satisfactory example. Even seemingly aimless actions, like tapping one’s foot, have implicit goals. For instance, to alleviate one’s anxiety or boredom. Perhaps it suffices then to define action as simply choice expressed through movement (since a goal is always given when choice and movement combine). Action is choice expressed through movement. However, there is a significance to the goal aspect of Sartre’s definition that makes me want to pause and reconsider. The choice and accompanying movement toward a simple goal like relieving an itch is very easy, while the choice and accompanying movement towards a complex goal like making a million dollars is very difficult. Therefore, I am led to conclude that actions are hard or easy in proportion to the difficulty of its goal. So I retain the original definition: Action is choice expressed through movement toward a goal. Now, instead of being bewildered by my inaction when I hit a bout of procrastination, I can simply pause and ask myself: what is the goal? what is the choice? what is the movement? I often find that I am blocked in one of these components. For me, it’s usually that I have unrealistic or daunting goals, so the choice and accompanying movement are unclear, and the overall ability to take action is hindered. A Table for Action-Taking I find it helpful to even break a blocked action down into a table, with columns Choice, Movement and Goal. This makes it crystal clear what component of an action is the real impediment. Here is an example below with exercise. Imagine you want to get your daily exercise in (and you have wanted to create this habit for awhile), but you just can’t get yourself to take action. If you break down the action, you might come to find that you have an unrealistic goal that is far removed from reality (“8-pack”), and this makes the present choice and accompanying movement impossible to determine. However, if you were to adjust the goal to something realistic to the action of daily exercise, such as feeling healthy or energized, then the choice and movement becomes easy to to identify, and the overall action becomes something doable. Result I’ve used this framework to think through my inaction when I experience it and it has worked remarkably well. It is a new addition to my action-taking toolkit. I have still not solved the matter completely. In a previous article, I spoke about a heuristic for reasoning and doing, and in the next article, I’m going to speak about the freedom and responsibility aspect of action-taking. I remain determined to reason through all the impediments to action-taking and figure out a philosophy that really works in contemporary life. Discuss