All leaders have one quality that seems almost magical to the casual observer. They use this quality to build communities, to make the world a better place, and to make their own lives awesome. What is that quality?
They take action. Instead of waiting for someone to do something, they do it.
Action is the key to translating your dreams into reality. Yet, so often we hesitate to take action. We want to get involved with social justice, we want to achieve personal goals, we want to give back in meaningful, dynamic, sustainable ways - and yet - we don’t. This is because we fail to take action.
To help you take action and lead at your highest level I want to share a few personal tricks that I use to make sure I’m busy breathing life into my dreams.
1) Ask yourself the following questions:
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What will I begin to achieve if I take action now? (Hint: the answer is pretty consistently, “awesome things”)
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What will I fail to achieve if I do not take action now? (Hint: the answer is pretty consistently, “awesome things”)
By asking yourself these questions you will realize that taking action now is the key to unlocking your potential as an individual and leader. You will recognize that if you don’t act now, you run the risk of never acting. How many times have we all told ourselves, “I’ll get around to it tomorrow…” only to never have that fabled “tomorrow” reach us?
2) Break it down into a smaller task. Sometimes we struggle to take action if the task is is highly complicated. Instead of tackling everything all at once, you can create a series of smaller steps. If your aim is to reduce the level of poverty in India, then a good first step is to fly to India and get a sense for the country, perhaps as a volunteer. If that’s too intimidating then set aside two hours a week to research India’s economics and start planning your trip. If that’s too intimidating, set aside one hour a week to talk to people who have been to India and get their advice on setting up your trip. If that’s too intimidating…..
3) Be well rested and stay healthy. When I’m wolfing down Doritos and only sleeping 5 hours a night, I find it impossible to start even the most engaging projects. I spend hours watching How I Met Your Mother and feeling guilty for not doing something more productive. While this is fine – even desirable from time to time - it’s quite the hindrance to actually achieving cool things.
To really get in the habit of making awesome things happen, take good care of yourself. Keep yourself well rested, low stress, and healthy. You’ll find that you’re much more inspired to take on projects and much more effective as a leader when feeling good is your norm.
4) Just do it. This is my favorite action trick. I’ll be the first to admit that I find facebook very distracting and often find my fingers typing “faceb…” when I should be working on my next speech. When this happens I stop myself and think “I just have to get this done. Stop being a wuss and knock this out like a champ.”
After resisting the initial urge to get distracted, everything else gets much easier.
By getting in the habit of taking action you will become a much more effective individual and a more engaging, accomplished and inspiring leader. Action breeds more action and as you get used to acting you’ll notice that you’re leading and achieving at an insanely high level.
Now whatever it was you were thinking of as you read this newsletter – I have one final tip for you: go do it!
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