TAKING ACTION

Full text

Taking action towards your dreams and goals is clearly vital, but it’s not always easy to stay consistent and
build momentum. However, taking action is one of those important pieces to the puzzle along with proper
planning and the drive to succeed. Those that take action are the ones that see results.
One way to dissuade yourself from taking action is to take whatever you are about to do too seriously. That
makes it feel too big, too difficult and too scary. If you on the other hand relax a bit and lighten up you often
realize that those problems and negative feelings are just something you are creating in your own mind. With a
lighter state of mind your tasks seems lighter and becomes easier to get started with.
8. Get enthusiastic.
Enthusiasm is great emotional state to be in to get going and take action. And if you aren’t feeling enthusiastic
then that’s OK too. You can pretty much always create enthusiasm within yourself.
If you don’t learn from the actions you take then you won’t
be able to become more eective. If you don’t guide your
actions with principles, heuristics, or aims then you won’t
have much say at all about where you end up – and who you
become.
Having goals for things we want to do and working towards them is an important part
of being human. The path towards our goals may not always run smoothly or be easy,
but having goals, whether big or small, is part of what makes life good. It gives us a
sense of meaning and purpose, points us in the direction we want to go and gets us
interested and engaged, all of which are good for our overall happiness.
Over 2000 years ago, Aristotle said "Well begun is half done." And with regards to
goals, he's right (as he seems to have been on a lot of things). Paying attention to how
we set our goals makes us more like to achieve them and achieving them makes us feel
good about ourselves and our lives.
SUBGOALS
1. Break your goal down. This is especially important for big goals. Think about
the smaller goals that are steps on the way to achieving your bigger aim.
Sometimes our big goals are a bit vague, like 'I want to be healthier'. Breaking
these down helps us be more speci*c. So a smaller goal might be 'go running
regularly' or even 'to be able to run around the park in 20 minutes without
stopping'. Write down your smaller goals and try to set some dates to do these by

too. Having several smaller goals makes each of them a bit easier and gives us a
feeling of success along the way, which also makes it more likely that we'll stay on
track towards our bigger goal.
Examine your fears closely and work on overcoming them. Is the fear rational, in reaction to real
danger? Or, is it based on emotion?
3. Step out of your comfort zone. Stretching ourselves a little takes courage and requires
us to take action. Stepping our of our comfort zone will give us new confidence and hence the
courage to reach new heights.
4. Accept failure. Failure will come. It’s a part of life. Use your failures as stepping-stones to
success. Learn from failures and move on. Don’t wait to take action because of the fear of failure.
5. Be independent. Learn to stand on your own and have confidence in the decisions that you
make. Avoid relying on the support or approval of those around who will prevent you from taking
action.
In reality, there is no perfect time. Nothing will ever be perfect, so don’t wait for perfection before
taking action. It’s good to think, research, plan, but then take action.