The Power of Action

Action is what separates dreamers from doers. Action is the difference between success and failure. If you only think big, visualize or just dream about success, you will never amount to much. It is only when you take action towards your goal that you start getting results. It is better to shoot-aim-shoot than to aim-aim-aim. It is better to act and make mistakes than keep wishing that you did something when you had the chance.

Yesterday we talked in detail about visualizing your success. It is a wonderful strategy and very powerful if followed up with action. When you visualize your success, you should also visualize a way of achieving that goal and create an action plan to get you to your destination.

Have a Bias for Action

I created this site to inspire you to be the best you can be. Most of the articles on this blog are in the area of personal development. You could read all the articles on this site, and on other sites, heck even on the whole internet, but if you never put any of the lessons in action, then all that would be in vain. Of all the things I can say to you, please remember this one: “have a bias for action“. If you have a bias for action you will be ahead of those that just talk, plan but never do.

Taking action is the real difference between people who make it, and those that never make it. Many people are paralyzed by the fear of failure. They think, if I do this thing and it does not work out, I will lose face or I will be embarrassed or something bad will happen to me. You need to fight the fear of failure because it paralyzes you. You end up thinking, planning, thinking and planning over and over again without getting ahead.

The best investment you can make towards your success is to take action. Even if it is a small baby step, make sure you do something everyday towards your goals. Once you take that first step, it becomes easier to make a second and a third step. Whenever you make plans or goals, remember taking action towards them is the only way of getting there. It is the surest way of making a success out of you.

You may fail from time to time, but you will be learning and polishing your approach. Even Thomas A. Edison  failed 10,000 times before he invented the light bulb. He said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work“. Allowing the possibility of failure to cross your mind but not be paralyzed by it is a good trait to have.

Think of your life right now. Are there things that you want to do but you have been putting off? Is there something that you should do towards your goal but you have been procrastinating? Could you do one thing that you have been postponing today? Just one thing…

I really want you to succeed in life, so allow me to repeat myself. The best investment you can make towards your success, my friend, is to take action. When you take action you create a possibility of either failure or success. If you fail, pick yourself up, learn from it and try again. If you succeed, you will feel good about yourself and build your inner confidence to take more action. Either way, you win.

Build Your Strength

Every time you take action, you end up becoming stronger. The saying goes (about your mind) – “use it or lose it”. You need to exercise your mind everyday. Read positive books, magazines, attend seminars, speak to others, challenge your mind, solve problems and take action. That way you will be better able to handle future challenges.

Remember when it was hard to recite the alphabet? Now you are reading this post and learning from me. It looks like an easy read because your mind is stronger. You took the required action to learn how to read. You practiced and perfected that part of learning. Now you are applying it in your life. It is like that with anything in life. It may seem hard at the beginning, but if you stick with it long enough, it will surely becomes easier and propel you to even greater success.

You need to be using your skills everyday to keep on top of your game. Elite athletes train really hard, they take action everyday to improve their game and fitness. Whatever your field of endeavor, find a way to improve yourself everyday by taking action.

Every time a weightlifter works out with progressively heavier weights they build their strength. Remember every baby step you take towards your goal (via action) makes you stronger.

Gain Momentum

If you start taking action towards your goals, you will gain momentum and be virtually unstoppable.  Practice makes perfect. You will become more confident and aware of your abilities. You will get the opportunities of analyzing yourself, appraising your performance and improving as you go along. You will get a chance to build on each success.

For a long time last year, I was contemplating starting this blog but I was afraid that I was not upto it. I would visit other more established sites and would feal really threatened. Those guys are so good, people like Anthony Robbins, they have done the motivational thing for years. I am just a regular Kenyan in Perth, Western Australia with a few successes here and there and lots of failures. I was asking myself, why would anyone want to listen to me when they can listen to the people who know their stuff.

Late last year I was exchanging emails with Tony Mwangi, who runs the successful African Migrants Blog from Melbourne, Australia http://www.thedisplacedafrican.com. He comes from Kenya as well, is in Australia too, though thousands of miles away from me. He had been running his successful website for 1 year and so I wanted to learn from him.

He told me, “The principle is quite simple; be as authentic as possible as you write and write with the aim to help others. Shy away from discussing things in the abstract and talk more about taking action and the results of taking action.” I was asking for blogging how-to guides but Mwangi just told me to jump right in and learn on the job.  I credit him in helping me jump that mental hurdle that so many people seem to have.

Many people expect to have all the information before they get started. If you want to have a successful blog for example, you don’t need to learn everything there is about website design, blogging, website metrics, monetization strategies, search engine optimization, link baiting, rss syndication etc. You just need to start the blog and learn as you go.

That is true for many areas of life. You don’t have to wait for the stars to align before you make that first step. Remember that action is the most solid component of success. Get just enough material to make your first step. Do not keep analyzing for years when you can get started right away.

Focus Your Energy

We only have so many hours in a day or amount of energy in your body and mind. Use it carefully. You cannot afford to do everything that needs to be done. Learn to prioritize and only take actions that lead you to success. Find the most direct path to your success and follow it.

Do not chase too many dreams at the same time. Switching from one task to another or one dream to another wastes time. Learn to finish a task before embarking on another one. Give yourself ample time to focus on what you want to do without distractions.

Action Planning

In the planning stage, just after visualization, make sure you create an attainable action plan and stick with it. Group logical actions together and learn how to become more productive.

Planning is important to ensure that your actions are moving you closer to your goals. You don’t want to do things just for the sake of doing them.

Actions in Life

As is now usual on this blog, let us look at a few practical areas of life you can take action in.

• Career – If your goal is to find a job, write down the list of employment agencies you are going to contact, get the job advertisements and the companies that you want to work in. Then create an action plan, on how you are going to apply for those jobs. Do not tire, keep taking action and something will come along. Look at ants and termites, they are tiny but they never stop taking action towards their goals. Have a plan and stick with it even when it may be easier to give up.

• Finances – If you want to take better control of your finances, start by writing a budget. Get out a piece of paper or a notebook and start documenting your expenses and income. You may not be an accountant but it is your money. Control it in the way that comes easy for you. If not, ring up an accountant and ask her to help you out.

• Family – If you have not been keeping in touch with your family members or long lost relatives, surprise them with a phone call today or be old fashioned and write them a letter, OK, maybe an email will do too. Make someone in your family feel special and loved. Go have a meal with a family member, listen to their problems, think of something to do to your family and do it.

• Health – You may be dreaming up a body that looks like that of Brad Pitt in Fight Club (for guys). Dreaming about it will not shape your abs. Go out and exercise. Change your menu. Do something, don’t just fantasize about having great body. For the ladies, do not just dream up of a Beyonce body, do something, hit the gym or eat something healthier. Don’t just sit there.
  

  Beyonce

• Relationship – I heard a story of a guy who could not take action. He found this beautiful Beyonce look alike girl and he really wanted to go out with her. He kept planning his perfect way of asking her out. He treated her well at the office as they worked together.  He became her friend as he plotted how he was going to ask her out “one day soon”. He knew she was single so he bid his time. Meanwhile someone else came along as he dilly dallied. Then one day when he was just about ready to ask her out, she invited him to her engagement party with the other guy! Don’t be that first guy. Take action and get the girl (or guy for the ladies).

• Business – If you ever wanted to start a business, go register your business, find one customer and serve him or her. Don’t moan that you cannot do this or that because of lack of capital. Find something people need and it provide to them within your means, get paid and reinvest the profits. Get the ball rolling from there. It is not so easy but every action counts. Do not just imagine.

Summary

Taking action beats inaction heads up in the battle for success. You do not even have to stretch yourself to capacity. Just start taking one action at a time and you will get stronger everyday. You will make mistakes but eventually you will succeed. As some wise man once said, the harder I worked the luckier I got. You need to work hard, take action and luck (success) will be attracted to you.

Sharing: All the best in your success. If you know someone who would be inspired by this article, please be generous and forward it to them.

_{»crosslinked«}

Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.