For some people, just the very thought of taking action is paralyzing.
I will be the first to admit, that taking action has never been an issue for me. In fact, impatience has actually been very beneficial in many ways (contrary to popular belief).
Being impulsive, while dangerous at times has it’s perks when it comes to taking action… but doing things outside our comfort zone can be quite scary.
Which is why I decided to share this – so hopefully I can inspire you to take some action in your life!
Taking Real Action to Change
For me personally, I had no problem:
- Selling free coupons door to door at age 7
- Jumping off a 70′ bridge in college
- Starting my first blog after a friend told me how to start a website after he started his company
- Asking my now wife to dance at the bar
- Looking to find ways to make money fast today or any day
- Buying a way too expensive truck on a whim
- Building a pallet wall and pull-up bar in my house with no experience crafting stuff
- Cutting my own hair (that is scary)
- Applying for an administrative job and getting it (after everyone said I was too young)
- Starting a marketing company with no prior experience, and lastly….
- Deciding I was going to CHANGE
Truth be told, everything I just listed didn’t really scare me. Those were things I was comfortable with. However, things that did scare me – the REAL things I needed to take action in – those scared me.
Things like:
- Saying no to people
- Not letting people rope me into things I didn’t want to do
- Growing myself
- Cleaning my house
- Beating my negative self-talk
- Saying I am a realist
- Avoiding healthy habits
- Justifying bad habits
- Fear of tough conversations with people
- Speaking my mind
- Standing up for what is right.
The action I needed to take, quite truthfully scared me to death. Why?
Because it meant I needed to take action to change, not change the circumstances around me.
Action isn’t scary.
I can tell myself I was productive and feel good about myself because I did the dishes, folded laundry and grabbed a quick workout… but that is easy.
And perhaps for you that isn’t easy, which is something to take a mental note of. Instead, for me, I needed to stop avoiding the things that sacred me like forgiveness and learning to not care about other people’s opinions.
I had to take real action in the the REAL things that mattered. Doing the dishes and starting blogs wasn’t real action (at least for me). I needed to personally grow.
So here are some ways I started taking action…
3 Quick Ways to Take REAL Action
1. Don’t think, just do.
This might seem simple, because it is.
The reason most people struggle to take action is that they have what is commonly referred to as paralysis by analysis. The over analyzation prevents them from doing or starting new things.
When I started my blog as a side hustle, it sucked – but I didn’t overthink it. I just did it. Had I thought about it for a few weeks, I most likely would have convinced myself not to do it!
So if you’re thinking about doing something, don’t think – just take action and do! Don’t give yourself the time to come up with all the reasons it won’t work!
2. Make a big goal, then forget it.
Let’s say you have a big financial goal to pay off $300,000 in student loans like we did.
That is freaking scary. It’s so big, so scary, that in most cases – it’s overwhelming so we do nothing to tackle it.
So when it comes to setting goals – everyone is different. What isn’t different is that without action, no goal every comes true! So here is how you take action:
- Set a goal,
- Forget the goal,
- Take one tiny step.
Then follow that step up with one more step and so on. Don’t think about progress, think about steps. Then reflect back on your progress.
3. Schedule Your Action
Write it down:
Tomorrow I will run 2 miles at 8 am and make 5 sales calls.
Writing and scheduling etches what you will do into your subconscious mind. Taking action is much easier when you make it a subconscious action – like brushing your teeth.
Brushing your teeth when you were five was a chore, by 10 it was simple, and by 14 you did it every day and night without fight it.
To make taking action a habit in your subconscious mind, start by writing it down. Write down the action you plan on taking every day for as long as you need to.
Final Word
Like Nike, just do it!
As cliche as that might be, the key to taking action is recognizing that whatever is preventing you from taking action – fear, your comfort zone, procrastination, whatever – is not real.
The less you think about it and the more you go for it the better you will be. Recognize this last final piece of advice…
Perfection isn’t possible and nobody is perfect the first time around.
Doing things perfect the first time around is not possible! No matter how many YouTube videos you watch on golf, books you read, and even buying the best golf clubs will still not make you good at golf until you go play a few hundred rounds!
Think of babies learning to walk. It is ugly, far from perfect, and they fall down over and over again. But they don’t give up, they get up and keep trying.
Action is the same way – don’t wait for all the lights to turn green to drive to the other coast, just take one simple step!