How Taking Action Can Change Your Life

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” - Zig Ziglar

Don’t think, just do. This might sound like irresponsible advice, but think about it… If you’re stuck, no matter what life situation you find yourself in, whether it be personal or in business, you need to read on why taking that first step can change everything for the better. 

Whenever we think about the perfect life, our dreams, our goals, and our desires, we get excited about what the future might hold with its endless possibilities. We want to share this feeling that we have with the world, so we tell our friends and family. That’s when rejection hits. Our hopes and dreams instantly get put under a microscope to get judged.
 
The limiting thoughts and beliefs of our closest confidants makes us doubt ourselves and our ability to reach our dreams. This makes it even more difficult to take the first step. 

This leads to the second major reason that prevent people from taking action: fear and negative feelings. The fear of failure, fear of rejection or even worse, the fear of succeeding. So instead of taking action, we procrastinate. We find excuses that it’s not the right time, or that we can’t do it now because we don’t have the time, the money, the energy, or the resources.

As a coach and mentor, I can tell you that if you’re waiting for the right time, you’ll NEVER take action.

In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear writes about the difference of being in motion versus taking action. Being in motion is when you are planning and strategizing. You are doing something, which is great, but you’re not progressing to the desired outcome or result. When you take action, you are progressing towards obtaining that desired result.
 
Clear mentions a few great examples of the difference between being in motion and taking action. One of these is when you outline a few ideas for an article that you intend to write. That is being in motion, whereas when you write and publish the article, it’s taking action.

People are comfortable just being in motion, because to them it feels like they are at least doing something. Let me tell you however, from previous experience I know that obtaining results rarely happens when you are in your comfort zone. You HAVE to move out of the comfort zone to truly get the results you want.

So how then do we progress from being in motion to taking action?
 
1. Start by taking small steps

As the expression goes: Rome wasn’t built in a day. Once you are clear what your goal is, making minor changes to your daily routine can truly change your life. Break your goal into smaller steps, as small steps are easier to achieve. 

2. Schedule your actions

Once you have a list of actions you want to take, draw up a schedule. If you need to make 10 sales calls a day, schedule it by adding 1 hour every morning to making sales calls. This will help your mind prepare because it knows what’s ahead.

3. Pick a date and time 
Some actions don’t work well with daily or weekly schedules, mostly because you need some preparation time. Identify these actions and set a specific date and time of when you’ll take action. When you’ve written a few paragraphs of that article, pick a date that you’ll finish and publish it. This will add a sense of urgency to the action.

4. Stop Procrastinating and just do it!

Remember the first line of this blog? When you find yourself putting something off for too long, do a quick mind shift. Use this easy 5 second technique from Mell Robbins: “When you feel hesitant before doing something that needs to be done, count in your head ‘5-4-3-2-1-GO’ and take action immediately. Hesitation is the kiss of death. You might hesitate for a nanosecond, but that’s all it takes. This little hesitation triggers a mental system designed to stop you. And it happens in less than – you guessed it – five seconds.”
 
So my question to you today is: Are you doing something? Or are you just preparing to do it? If you are stuck in preparation mode, get in touch. I can help you move from just being in motion to taking action!

It's time to stop dreaming and start doing!



“Never mistake activity for achievement.” — John Wooden