The most common and powerful advice dished out by every expert on this planet is one word: Action.
At the heart of almost all business and personal development education is the concept that in order to realize a goal you have to do something – sometimes anything will do – to get a result.
It may seem obvious, and intuitively you understand why action works, yet it’s common advice because most people fail to do it.
I regularly refer to taking action in the articles here on my blog and also in the blog training materials I produce for my newsletter and mentoring program. I read similar advice on other blogs and in books I read on business and self improvement.
There is one tip you hear more often than any other at the end of podcast interviews or speaking presentations from experts. It goes along the lines of “do something if you want results” – yes, more take action advice.
In many ways if you really want the true “Secret” to success in life, it is taking action.
Why People Fail
It’s easy to look at the lack of results that the majority of people experience (or don’t experience) as a result of not taking action. People buy products and don’t use them, study courses and don’t implement what they learn and even go as far as spending thousands of dollars on university degrees and never use the skills and knowledge they spent so much money to acquire.
I’ve been thinking about this behaviour pattern a lot lately. I believe if you really analyze why people fail it’s not because they failed to take action, it’s because they wake up each day and choose to do the wrong actions for their given goals.
Take this a step deeper and it’s not actually wrong actions – there really is no such thing as a “wrong” action – it’s that most people take actions totally incongruent with what they really want.
Dig a little deeper still and you finally hit the real reason why people are unhappy and fail to achieve goals – they don’t really know what they want.
Goals Vs Outcomes
Don’t be confused between goals and outcomes. If you want to generate a certain amount of money from a small business or to lose weight or find a life partner then you need to set goals that result in those outcomes.
For example, if you want to lose weight then a daily goal might be exercise – go for a 30min swim today. If you want to find a partner you might take action by committing to talk to three strangers today. If you want more money, research a topic for a new blog could be today’s goal.
It’s through goals, some of which are daily tasks that take you closer to longer term goals, which result in the outcomes you want to achieve.
Lack of Vision
Vision is such an important part of goal attainment, yet most people have no strong sense of what they want to achieve. With a clear vision the steps necessary to reach your vision are clearer and your actions are congruent with your real goals.
Congruency is vital because without it your motivation wanes. When you do things that you don’t enjoy or don’t result in what you really want, you won’t do them for long enough or do them with enough energy to really reap rewards. When you take actions that are congruent with your vision it’s much easier to do them day after day and enjoy every step of the way (the little victories I wrote about previously).
What Did You Do Today?
If you look back over yesterday or today, if it was a working day, chances are you got up, ate breakfast traveled to work by bus, train or car, sat through a long day of meetings, procrastination, lunch, idle chatter, web surfing, email checking and perhaps 1-2 hours of actual work. Then you got back on the train, bus, car, returned home, maybe watched some TV, had some dinner, gossiped on the phone or on instant messenger and went to bed.
Most people experience a variation of the above sequence throughout the majority of their working life, and feel quite miserable a lot of the time too. That’s sad.
All the above activities are actions that lead to outcomes, yet besides the pay cheque at the end of the month, they are not likely congruent actions with what you really want from life.
When the spark for change surfaces it usually results in the purchase of a self help book or a make money manual with the hope that within the wise words of an expert lies the key for finding the true freedom we all crave. The book is read, there might be a brief sugar rush of excitement because you glimpse the potential for a better life and you briefly expand your awareness.
With the excitement of potential carrying you forward you take your first few actions following the guide book you just bought. Unfortunately you don’t really know what you are doing and lack any vision, hence your results are poor and you quickly return to your previous routine because it’s comfortable and predictable. That’s pretty sad too.
Vision Leads To Congruent Actions
A vision is the real key for success and it’s through vision that your actions become congruent and you realize real results, the outcomes, you desire.
Forming a vision isn’t something that happens overnight and the best advice I can give you is evolve your big vision, while also working on minor visions on shorter time frames.
My current big business vision is to have a business based on my expertise in blogging. This business is made up of many different blogging products, and also provides an outlet for me to meet and interact with similar minded people and learn from some of the best trainers in the world in areas I want to improve in.
A smaller vision that makes up part of the big vision is my blog mentoring program. I have certain outcomes I want to achieve through Blog Mastermind, which make up part of my blogging business overall vision.
I also have visions for my Blog SEO book and my Blog Traffic School course, which are also part of the overall business and make up the key components of my sales funnel.
From a day-to-day goals perspective, at the moment I focus on the mentoring program vision, in particular the product launch process, and I take actions congruent with meeting this vision. Each day I complete one or two or three tasks taking me steps closer to launching the program and realizing my first minor vision.
Since Blog Mastermind is my current focus I have the clearest vision and spend the most time on it. The steps for launching the Blog SEO Book are not as clear, but I have a general idea of how I want to launch the book and how it will fit in the overall blog business vision. As I move closer to the time when I will focus on the release of the book, the steps for this minor vision will become clearer.
The minor visions are in constant adjustment due to changes in the environment and my own education process, but the big vision is clear, and the outcomes I expect from the vision motivate me each and every day.
If you don’t have a vision I suggest you spend some time – and some of this is self-reflection and introspection – to determine what vision would result in the outcomes you want.
Begin to break down your big vision into minor visions from which you can extrapolate daily tasks. If you don’t yet know how to do something and it’s stopping you from clarifying your vision, seek education and resources so your vision becomes clearer and therefore your actions become more congruent.
Vision leads to congruency and a powerful motivation, which result in consistent and persistent action. You develop a single-minded sense of certainty – nothing will stop you – no money making opportunity will sway you from your current path and you won’t return to your old routine due to fear of the unpredictable.
Actions may be key, but without vision guiding action, you won’t achieve your goals because you won’t know what your truly goals are.
Yaro
Blurry Visioned
“I’ve been thinking about this behaviour pattern a lot lately. I believe if you really analyze why people fail it’s not because they failed to take action, it’s because they wake up each day and choose to do the wrong actions for their given goals.”
I feel you need to dig a little deeper here. One of the questions you need to ask is why do people fail to take action.
There are some very strong psychological drivers going on in this question and the answers are based around: Fear of rejection and fear of failure.
Both of these are social issues and about how we feel we will be seen by our peers.
I agree with you here Yaro. People need to envision where they want to be in life. Most of all they need to take action in order to stay on the path to fulfilling that vision. Work ethic is a major factor also. I’ve read numerous interviews with wealthy people, and they all say they had to work extremely hard to get there.
Hi Yaro,
great article, I just had a chat about that topic with my wife yesterday!
I think that there are two kinds of people who fail to implement their dreams: There are some who are failing because they do not have the vision as you state, others fail in my opinion, because they have the vision but are not pursueing it consequently. You can sometimes wallow in your dreams and visions and are not taking any step towards fulfillment.
Distraction from those step-by-step actions is very crucial to watch out for. You read books on that topic, visit blogs and websites, make plans, impress others wih your dreams, know how you can do it right but you do not start. If you hear entrepreneurs, a lot of them say: At the end I just did it…
Mark Twain had an interesting thought:
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”
Jan
Hey Yaro,
Yet another great article. Action does go hand in hand with vision and I like how you ended on that note. Thanks for another great article.
Vision is exactly what I’ve been examining, Yaro. When I look back, I see that what I’ve built up has been hobbled together from many smaller things, and “hobbled together” is the best term for it.
Without an overall vision, you lose that cohesiveness that can lead to great things. So I’ve been working on a vision with every single blog that I have, and all these smaller visions fit in with my “grand vision”.
And I’ve been finding that it’s exactly as you say. Once I am clear on what my vision is, out of the multiple possible actions that show up every day, it’s so much easier to choose.
Thanks for another great, thought-provoking article.
Belle
Great stuff, Yaro!
This is a nice “expanded version” of your answer to my Key to Success interview question.
Thanks for sharing…
-Jason
Nice article, Yaro, you seem to be on a roll with the motivational advice lately.
My work routine is a lot like what you’ve described here and you’ve certainly inspired me to take the time to focus on the few really important things that will contribute to me acheiving my visions.
Keep up the great work!
Joe
Very nice, Yaro. There is a huge gap the size of the grand canyon between those who have a vision and follow through and those who…well, they might have a vision but never actually actualize themselves.
Thanks for letting others in on your journey. Yaro i know exactly what you mean but its not always easy. With so many distractions everyday, its hard to keep focus when every single thing sounds like a good idea.
Like you said, taking action alone is not enough… the action itself must be congruent to the final objective.
By the way, just wanting to know… whats your everyday routine like?
Cheers.
-Dave
Fantastic article. I partcularly enjoyed the section on evolving your bigger vision while working on the minor ones.
By any chance have you taken any NLP related studies in your journey? Just curious.
Thanks.
Hi Yaro,
Do you formulate specific tasks each day? Do you do it the night before?
Cheers,
Will
action is important. but action without thought is not the most productive. i think you need to create a plan and then take action to implement that plan. random action is wastefull and can be frustrating.
experimenting is okay and probably necessary but that is still related to some fore thought. mistakes will happen no matter what. hoepfully they will not be severe and ones you can recover from.
so once you get a rough plan (it does not have to be perfect) then action is vital. but dont act without some idea of what you are doing and where you want to go.
Surprisingly I have not read or studied seriously any NLP stuff, although it’s always circulating around me, I’ve just never dived in.
It’s definitely on the topic-to-read list.
Yaro, excellent post, I will be sure to link to this once I have launched my blog.
I think the differentiation between goals, objectives & vision is extremely valuable in understanding what you really want and how to get there.
I will say this though, some days I spend doing things a little off track from my vision and shortly afterwards I regret the wasted time and the longer deadline, but then down the track some of these ‘off track’ actions come into fruition and become apart of my ideas, outcomes and vision. I think even if these actions do not directly become apart of my vision I think they are a good way to have balance, which in turn I feel improves your ability to obtain your goals, outcomes and vision.
Nice article 🙂
Sometimes, there’s not much choice available if you started with the wrong path.. eg: getting a job.
Will – I’m quite organic when it comes to formulating tasks. I know what I need to do in a given day and attempt to get it done first thing, then work on other tasks or do something not work related.
It’s fluid, not structured and more a sense of “what do I want to achieve today?” or “what do I want to take one step closer to achieving today?”.
Dave – A while ago I wrote an article about my average day, which you can read here:
A Day in the Life of an Internet Entrepreneur
It’s not entirely accurate anymore (my computer is not in my room for example and I tend to get up between 7-8AM), but generally it is:
1. Wake up
2. Do my critical task(s)
3. Eat breakfast
4. Finish critical task, move on to next task
5. Cook lunch, watch DVD
6. Swim/Rollerblade/Treadmill/Go to city/Meet with friends or something else
7. Come home, do some more work, go to bed
Generally something like that, but it changes a lot. I might do an updated version of my day in the life article if I get the chance.
Damn great article, Yaro. Keep up the good work.
Its been my experience that most people haven’t had the responsibilty to direct themselves into tasks that are not enjoyable on a consistant basis. We’re taught to take direction from the start of school. If we’re not told to do something, we don’t do it. Bring that upbringing into trying to make yourself do boring tasks day in and day out, well, most people don’t have that type of focus or resolve. As a business owner, you’re responsible for everything. You may not be doing anything, but you have to deligate the work out.
It has been a great post regarding the advice ‘Action’. In regular life all peoples are finding their action, but only some might get the right action. As you said many people had failed to implement what they have studied. Thank you for this great post.