Goal, Plan, Action
Now that you’ve written down your goals specifically.
Chunked them into smaller goals and written your plan.
It’s time for massive (fearless) action!
If there is something you can do now (this second) towards a goal, go and do it. Take the time. This post isn’t going anywhere, that is taking action, I’ll still be here when you come back.
Now, there are some that say ‘all successful people take action’, I say all ‘motivated people take specific actions, which leads to successful outcomes‘.
Why do I say that?
Because some people take plenty action, but they aren’t taking the right action, in the right way at the right time.
Or they toe dip, play about in the baby pond, they research their goals, find what they need to apply and then do nothing.
Assuming that you have written down your goals ‘the what’, and you have identified the ‘why, who, where, when and how’, it’s time to act.
It’s Time for Boldness
Your action may include a period of discovery, learning, researching, discussing, identifying, learning and adding to your actions to take. Some people can get caught up on the ‘prepare’ stage, when in fact what they need is to move and motivate themselves further.
For example, assume you want to change career, you have identified ‘key’ people you want to talk to. You could have a list of names you’re sitting on. Yet, for some reason you aren’t doing nothing with it. The action you may need to take is connecting with these people via email, phone or social network.
Action, especially when heading into the unknown can be a little daunting. But your plan is worthless, if you don’t take the steps to apply it.
Also many get stuck in the planning and preparing part. They spend a long time ‘thinking’ and ‘talking’ about it, and don’t see the results because the plan is not moving, there is no energy to it. Thinking and talking is fine, however there has to come a point of action.
For example, assume you’re wanting to lose weight.
You have set the goal to attend a gym or a class. You are taking massive action on the healthy eating part, but the gym goal is sitting there doing nothing. Review the goal again, ask yourself what is stopping you taking action on this step? Is it a fear of visiting a gym for the first time? Do you feel ashamed or embarrassed to attend? Worried others will look at you? Money?
If you do this process, you may find you need to review and evaluate the original goal. Go back to the ‘who, what, why, where, when’ is there anything you can add to the goal to ensure that action will take place?
Gaining Momentum
Energy is built from energy.
As soon as you start to take action, you will probably see yourself getting quicker and taking more. Why? It’s all these small steps that build momentum.
If you’ve already laid the groundwork, it’s important to focus on productive actions; the actions that will carry the most power, the actions that will inspire the greatest results.
Additionally, you should identify action steps to be taken daily, weekly, and monthly.
Remember, goal achievement is a process – you can’t take action just once and hope it works.
Most goals will require consistent effort, specific action steps taken day after day, week after week, month after month! Identify the things you can do on a regular basis to keep your plans moving forward.
Daily actions are usually small to moderate in scale but hold the power of duplication and accumulation. The more you do them, the more effective they become.
Weekly actions are usually a bit larger in scale, take a little longer to complete, and involve an element of risk. They are usually the most proactive in the sense that they help you face your fears and push forward determinedly. They would include things like releasing your creations to the public, or increasing your business marketing efforts by attracting attention to your products or services. These bolder actions usually bring about bigger results.
Monthly actions are things you do to keep yourself on track, like evaluate your progress and readjust your plans if necessary. Monthly actions can also include extraneous activities not vital to your goal except in peripheral ways. This can include networking, expanding your market reach, working on your personal development, reading, learning, researching, etc.
Make a list of the most productive actions you determine should be done daily, weekly and monthly.
It’s important to note that you are not setting a schedule with this exercise; you are simply identifying key, productive action steps that you can take on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Don’t get caught up wondering how you can find time to do all this, or whether a certain task should be done daily or weekly. Simply put down a general idea of the most productive actions that you can think of. You can always add to this list or change it later on.
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