MONDAYS / On Taking Action
EPISODE OVERVIEW: It’s time to follow through on your word.
Hosted by Fiona Bicknell
In this week's episode, we dive into the power of action and following through on our commitments, inspired by a powerful quote from Carl Jung: “You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.” Fiona shares a little here on her struggle of balancing deadlines, responsibilities, and the pressure of self-imposed expectations, reflecting on how easy it is to get caught in the trap of saying we’ll do something but never actually taking the necessary steps. This conversation explores the conflict between resisting fear and recognizing when it’s time to act, offering a fresh perspective on personal growth and accountability.
The episode also aligns with the energy of the lunar eclipse in Pisces, which calls for releasing illusions and stepping into grounded action. Fiona invites you to examine areas in your life where you’ve been holding back, offering encouragement to take that first step—even if it's just a small one. Whether you’re struggling to follow through on your own commitments or simply looking for some inspiration to take action this week, this episode will leave you motivated and ready to move forward with purpose. Tune in to hear more about overcoming resistance and embracing the power of doing.
What Next?
If this episode felt useful and you’d like to connect further with PORTER, there are multiple ways to engage with Fiona and the brand:
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Hello, hello, and welcome to the week of September 16th.
It is late on Sunday evening as I'm recording this, or it's late by my standards anyway, it is 1048 PM.
And generally by this time in the week, I would well and truly have my Monday episode recorded. It would be uploaded and scheduled to go live. It would have an email campaign built to support it. And this week, that is just not the case.
And I've actually spent the last couple of hours battling with my own mind as to whether I'm going to record this episode or not.
And this is probably the fourth time that I've recorded it. And generally, I record these in one take.
Like this is something that I, as much as possible, will try and set myself up to have a lot of flexibility and freedom in my schedule so that I can record these when the energy for it hits. And for those of you who are familiar with human design, I'm a manifestor in human design, and this is really the guidance for manifestors. It is to move with the energy of the body, which is somewhat inconsistent, and you work with the energy when it hits.
And generally speaking, that works for me.
But this week, the energy didn't hit, the energy just did not arrive. And so I haven't yet recorded, and it got to about 8 p.m this evening and I'd been working all day - I'm doing an MBA, and I had a presentation that was due, and I had other things on my plate that I was prioritizing because there were deadlines that I wasn't in control of. There were things that needed to happen that I couldn't shift and change. And so this was something that seemed to get kind of pushed to the wayside. And then when I did find myself with the space, the energy for it just wasn't there.
So I finished my other presentation I had to do today. I finished that at about 8 p.m. And then I spent the last couple of hours kind of going back and forth. I tried to record, and I just know how tired I sound. And I was like, oh, it's not worth it. It doesn't matter. It's not the end of the world if something doesn't go out.
But the theme for this week is, you know, the irony is not lost on me. The theme for this week is all about taking action and following through on our word.
So I feel like I don't really have a choice. I've made this commitment. And it is something that I want to follow through on.
So here I am recording at 1048 p.m. or now 1050 p.m. on a Sunday evening.And the theme this week, like I said, it's all about taking action, but it is from a quote that I come back to again and again and again.
It is a quote from Carl Jung.
And he said, “you are what you do, not what you say you'll do”.
And the way this quote operates for me, and please excuse my lack of eloquence here.
Like I said, I'm tired and I don't really have access to the right words right now, other than to say that the way this quote works for me is it helps me to cut through my own bullshit.
And but yeah, we can, we can sit and talk about what we're going to do. Whether it's we're telling ourselves or we're telling other people, we can, it's so easy to say, yeah, I'm going to do that. But actually doing it is another thing. Following through is another thing.
And so given that was the theme, I really felt like I needed to make sure I get this episode done tonight. Because yeah, it's not the end of the world if an episode doesn't go out. But at the same time, it's something I've said I'm going to do. And I'm capable of it.
I'm not going to, you know, I'm not running myself into the ground by, by taking 10 minutes to record this. I can do it. And I said, I'm going to do it.
So, yeah, it's character building, right?
We also have a lunar eclipse this week.
Sorry, this isn't all about, I don't want this to be about me and my own inner battles here.
This week we have a lunar eclipse that's happening in Pisces.
And Pisces is this energy of creativity and imagination and fantasy.
It is this emotional energy. It's very sensitive. It's a water sign. Yeah, it's so lovely. I love Pisces energy. It's what feeds our imagination.
But the shadow side of Pisces can be that we get trapped in our illusions. We can get trapped in our imagination. We can move through the world, stuck in this place of head in the clouds and not being grounded in reality.
And eclipses are a time for a release. Eclipses are a time where anything that is no longer serving us is removed from our energetic field.
So my suggestion for this week is to consider where it is you might be telling yourself, you are someone or something or you're going to do something. But there's not actually the action to back it up, that you haven't actually taken the steps to make it manifest.
Where might you be living in this space of head in the clouds and seeing things in the way your mind wants you to see it, or the way the fearful mind wants you to see it versus, yeah, seeing the truth of a situation or the truth of where you're really at with something.
And that isn't to say that this kind of imaginative, fantasy-driven parts of the mind aren't essential. They are. Like, I talk about this a lot.
The self-image is so, so important to create an image of self that allows us to see ourselves as someone who has great value to offer the world. That is so, so important.
But if we don't act upon it, then, yeah, it's kind of futile, right?
It doesn't carry any meaning until we do something with it, unless we do something with it.
And so I suggest that without being hard on yourself, trying to minimize any negative self-talk - we don't want to berate ourselves for not having done the thing yet or not having taken action - but can we just get honest with ourselves about where it is that there is something we've been saying we're going to do and we haven't actually done it or we haven't really followed through on our word?
And can this perhaps be the week that you take the action, even if it's just one small step?
And I want to offer a bit of a caveat here around the timing of things and our readiness for things because I do believe there are scenarios where we want to do something or we may even intuitively know that we are going to do something eventually, but we might not be ready for it and that we can't force it.
You know, there's some, sometimes there's just, yeah, sometimes we just find ourselves in a place where we can't force it.
We're really not ready for it.
But I do also believe that we are able to discern between when we are not ready for something, like when the timing just isn't right versus when we were resisting something and we're holding ourselves back from taking action on something because we are afraid.
And nine times out of ten, the only reason we are not doing it is because of fear.
So yeah, that's my suggestion for the week ahead.
Can you take a look at where you've said you're going to do something, but you haven't actually done it yet.
And it doesn't matter if you've said it out loud or you've said it to another person or you've only said it to yourself.
Just where is there something that you say you'll do? And can you actually take this week to do it?
So this is me following through on what I said I'm going to do, which is put out an episode every Monday.
And to all the people who have sent me feedback and sent me lovely words about these Monday messages, I mean, I am so grateful always, but in this very moment, I am unbelievably grateful because that is 1000 percent the thing that pushed me and helped me find the energy to record this right now.
So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Please always send feedback, good, bad, and otherwise.
And if you do take action this week and you want to let me know, please let me know.
I would love to hear whatever it is that you're doing, whatever it is that you're creating.
And even if you just want a bit of accountability, let me know.
Sometimes when we put things, we share things outside of ourselves, it really does give us like that kick up the butt that we need.
So I'm going to leave it here.
This might be short and sweet, and maybe I haven't articulated myself today as well as I know I probably am capable of, but I hope that it was useful nonetheless.
And if nothing else, I hope just that line in itself is useful for you.
You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.
I hope you have a really beautiful week and I am sending so much love.
