How to take action
More than just the doing part
Hey Champion,
Just do it
We've all heard that saying. Nike has long existed with this term, and many of its audience are anchored in it. It's formed part of their way of life, a system. Here's the catch, unless you know much about what Nike stands for, why they do what they do, and if you are athletically inclined. Then adopting this term might not make enough sense to go forth and become the 'inner athlete' you are.
I'm not convinced of it. Why? It misses a key element to taking action.
“Having enough reason to take action”
In my earlier mindset, I wouldn't know where to begin if I read "Just do it" or if someone told me to. It's important to note here that generalised statements like these we hear daily need some form of conditioning for them to work for you. So I want to spend a moment today to address this.
Many people today are in a reactive state; here is what I mean:
Waiting for life to happen, then reluctantly taking some action
Just about getting the hang of their surroundings, then bang, back into an uncertain state as the environment changes.
Never prepared - Climbing out of one ditch straight into another.
Not confident enough to take the steps without being called upon.
Worried that if they did something, it would worsen their situation, not better it.
The negative self-talk keeps them from ever taking any form of action.
Hey, we all feel this; it's normal too. Humans are made to survive, not thrive.
Thriving in your life, business, job, or career is a choice.
Do you want to thrive? Of course you do, so what's the problem then?
The Problem
Thrive or Deprived?
As people, we do two things. We all want pleasure, and we all want to avoid pain. These two simple concepts can either help us thrive or keep us deprived, and we do this to ourselves.
Most of the time, we take action consciously, pushing ourselves, trying to do it at will, without powerful reason to pull us through. It's not sustainable; it's not formed into a habit, and it's not an instant reaction to taking action.
Study the Action-Taking Chart below; how do you currently associate with both terms? Plot yourself, be honest.
What attribute forms who you are?
Achievers - High Pleasure / Low Pain Association
Those emotionally associated with pleasure, the positive outcomes of taking action, are achievers. Focusing more on the results and what their life would be like if they didn't take action.
Worriers - High Pain /Low Pleasure Association
Those who associate a high level of pain with a low level of pleasure tend to worry a lot about what might happen negatively—living by associations with painful reasons, enough to deprive you of the action.
Procrastinators - High Pleasure / High Pain Association
This is the common quadrant where many find themselves conflicted internally. They know they must act but know the consequences stop them from doing so. The feeling of stuckness happens here.
Drifters - Low Pleasure / Low Pain Association
Many people unaware of what is possible, achievable, or attainable or aren't interested are not emotionally concerned with the outcome or the effects of not taking action—living life as and when life happens, reacting at the moment, an unintentional way of living.
What can you do?
To move into the 'Achiever' quadrant, here's what I want you to do. When you feel like you lack the action taking, begin to formulate pleasurable associations of taking action and associations with the pain of NOT TAKING ACTION. This type of conditioning is a win/win solution; positives in pleasure and positives in pain.
If you have enough emotional attachment to the reason for taking action, you give yourself the best chance of following through; it becomes a MUST, not a SHOULD I? Think of it like this: the bases needs to be powerful enough for you to commit.
When formulating these reasons, I want you to FEEL IT, not just state them. If you aren't feeling the reason why, you are wasting your time in which case you aren’t triggering yourself.
Whatever emotionally gets you going, stack it as we have shown above. Mentally stacking reasons that create an unstoppable force on why you should take action.
Go take action, Champions.
Today's empowering belief:
There is nothing that can stop me when I choose to do it.
Unleash Your Greatness
There is an unstoppable inner Champion you are not allowing to come through, the source of your power. With the right empowerment and strategies, you can become the person you know you should be.
Can someone benefit?
Contribute this letter forward - help others grow too.
Brilliant exploration, my friend, which comes with no surprise! If I may add something here, I'd say that there might be some exception to the rule for the "achievers" group!
As a former perfectionist or, what is clinically known as a person suffering from an Imposter Syndrome, I used to be a workaholic and top performer!
It wasn't because I had a clear sense of my drive and motivation. Rather because I was deriving my worth from two sources: 1. Achieving and 2. People pleasing!
That is, unless we may come back to our original granted Center before any conditioning started taking place (the Universal Principles/Laws), being an achiever is merely a coping mechanism and can be as unhealthy as the other quadrants, if not more (I had at least 3 burnouts during my IT career in corporates).