150 | Passive and Productive Action

There are three stages of action: no action, passive action, and productive action.

Many lawyers get stuck in the passive action stage, and it’s a dangerous place to be. If you actually want to improve your finances, you need to get to the productive action stage and stay there.

In this episode, let’s talk about the three stages of action, how you know you’re in each, and the key differentiator between passive action and productive action.

• characteristics of the no action stage
• characteristics of the passive action stage
• why the passive action stage is dangerous
• characteristics of the productive action stage
• the key differentiator between passive action and productive action
• how to tell whether you’re in the passive action stage or the productive action stage

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If you’re ready to learn the mindset and strategies to master your money, let’s schedule a call.

You’re listening to Wealthyesque. We are a community of lawyers who believe that true wealth is having control of our time. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom, and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. I hope you’re doing well and having an amazing day so far. So today, we are talking about the stages of action that you pass through as you are working to improve your finances, I say there are three stages of action. The first stage is no action. So in this stage, people aren’t even aware of what’s going on with their finances. Or maybe they are aware, but they’re not taking steps to improve their finances. So often, you’ll hear people say things like, it just is what it is, I can never get ahead. And they think there’s nothing they can do to change, like, this is just what’s going on. This is just how I am right people who talk about like, Oh, I’m just a spender, I just can’t get the hang of this. And when you are in this stage, you’re taking no action, then, of course, naturally, you’re not getting results, you’re not changing your finances at all. The next stage is passive action. So when you are in passive action, you’re aware of what’s going on with your money, some, you’re aware that there’s an issue, you are motivated to fix it, and you’re starting to take some action, I think of this almost as the precursor to the next stage. In passive action, you are doing some things, you are kind of getting ready for improving your finances. But you’re not quite there yet. In this stage, you’re taking action, but you’re still not seeing results, you’re doing things that feel good, they feel productive, feels like you are moving yourself forward. But in reality you’re not. So in this stage, you’re doing things like researching, seeking information, listening to podcasts, reading books, even creating a budget, you’re doing those things, and it feels like you are doing something, but you don’t have anything to show for the things that you’re doing. And I think this is the most dangerous stage, because you think that you’re doing something you think that you’re doing well, you think you’re moving yourself forward, you’re taking action, but you have no results, just like if you took no action at all, like in the no action stage. And so many people stop here. So many people will consume all of the podcasts and all of the books and all the things, they’re in all the forums and the blogs, but they’re not actually moving themselves forward. So when you leave the passive action stage, and you move into what I call the productive action stage, this is where you start moving yourself forward. And this is where you want to be. So in this stage, you’re doing things you’re taking action, but you’re actually seeing results from that action. So you’re doing things that move yourself forward with your finances, you’re doing things that actually produce something, this is where you implement the things that you start learning in the passive action stage. So that’s why I say that passive action is a precursor to the productive action stage. Because in passive action, you’re learning the things that you need to do to move yourself forward, you just aren’t implementing them yet. And productive action, you’re actually implementing those things. And you’re seeing that improvement in your finances. The key differentiator here between passive action and productive action is the results. So if you’re taking action in your finances, you want to look at what the results of that action will be. There should be some measurable results from your action that you can see in your finances some measurable results in your finances from that action. If you don’t have measurable results, then you are either in passive action, or you’re early on in the productive action stage and you just haven’t seen the results of your efforts yet. The way you can tell which one you’re in is if you project out what the results of the actions that you’re taking would be so For example, if you’re in the passive action stage, you might be doing things like listening to podcasts or reading books. If I project that out, the result of listening to podcasts or reading books is that I learned something new. Or another action that we talked about in passive action is creating a budget. So if I project that out, the result of me creating a budget is that I have a plan for my money. But neither of those instances result in a measurable improvement in my finances. It’s the step, the first step to me getting to that measurable improvement. But it’s not actually getting me to that improvement in and of itself. But let’s say that I don’t just create a budget, I review that budget weekly checking my spending against it to make sure I’m on track course correcting, if I find myself getting off track, right now, if I project that out, the result is that I haven’t overspent at the end of the month, and I have money available for my financial goals. That’s moving my finances for it. So that’s why creating a budget in and of itself is passive. But following that budget is productive. So ask yourself when you are looking at the actions that you’ve been taking regarding your finances, are you taking passive action, or are you taking productive action, you can’t only take passive action and expect to get results. Results come from implementation, they come from taking productive action that produces results. So if you want to stop overspending, or you want to pay down your credit cards, or build your savings, reading about doing those things, or listening to a podcast about doing those things, is not going to help you by itself, you have to then implement what you’ve learned to get the results you’re looking for. And the implementation piece can feel hard, a lot of people get tripped up there. That’s why so many people stay stuck in passive action. Because implementing requires you to put forth effort implementing requires you to put yourself out there in a way that you could experience failure, it’s much easier to passively consume information and feel like you’re gaining knowledge and feel like you’re doing something, you know, that feels a lot better than when you are implementing, and you’re trying something and it doesn’t work, and you have to tweak it or you have to get yourself back on track. You don’t have to actually change anything when you’re in passive action. But when you’re implementing when you’re in productive action, you have to change what you’re doing. And for many of us, change feels really uncomfortable, it feels a lot better, a lot more comfortable for me to just sit here and keep doing what I’ve been doing. But we forget that we don’t like where we are. We don’t like the current results that we have. You don’t like the finances that you have now. And the passive action, although it makes you feel better in this moment, long term. It’s not making you feel better about your finances, because they’re not changing. So even though the productive action might feel uncomfortable in the moment, long term, it actually leads to you feeling even better, productive action implementation is the only way to get to your goals. So if you find yourself taking more passive action than productive action, and you struggle with the implementation piece, I invite you to come work with me. I will help you implement the strategies that you learn while you’re taking passive action. So you can actually get results head to rho thomas.com/call To get started. All right, that is it for this week’s episode. Come connect with me over on social media. You can find me most often on LinkedIn, rho, Thomas, and Instagram at I am rho Thomas. Subscribe to the show and leave a review both of which helped more people to find it. And please take a second think of a friend who could use this information and share this episode with them. As we close out friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently. Week after week, you will continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve. Talk to you later.