Action?

What is action?

Not in any complex, abstract, out-of-this-world sense but in real life experience. There is a difference between being passive and being active but I do not believe the difference is the defined. Because of that we have all these discussions raging about whether writting, talking, buying etc is actually acting or not.

I'm specifically thinking of a few weeks ago where someone mentioned that when people buy fair-trade coffee they "trick themselves into believing they are actually doing something". If they deceive themselves that they are actually doing something what IS doing something?