People who know me well would tell you that I am a complete information geek. I cannot learn enough or become exposed to enough new ideas. Most of my friends are the same way…

The written and spoken word has served me well in my addiction to receive information.

At the same time, the written and spoken word has served to bog me down.

Earlier this week I took the time to clean out a couple of my email inboxes. I was amazed to find that 800+ email messages were removed from one mailbox and 900+ in another mailbox.

After removing the email messages, I evaluated some of the groups I subscribe to on LinkedIn and various other forums – and removed myself from some of them.

Messaging completely bombards us these days – perhaps this is why it takes 9 touches to get a prospect to act on our value propositions today, while it took only 7 a short while ago.

When a message finds its way into my email boxes, I become “alerted” in a variety of ways. My BlackBerry phone vibrates and my iPad dings. Like Pavlov’s dog, I react.

The time for me has arrived to react less and act more.

I’ve made the conscious decision to act more, during a time when I have so much to do.  There is less time for me to hear what everyone else has to say – unless it truly provides value to me. I have had to become more selective.

This post is intentionally short because I realize that you have much to act on too.

Perhaps you subscribe to my blog and have several of my email messages sitting in your inbox.  Perhaps your BlackBerry has vibrated each time I’ve had something to say, or maybe your iPad dinged when I felt the need to post something.

If that is the case, I encourage you to “unsubscribe.”

Words that cause us to act bring value. Often times, words that cause us to react do not bring value.