What stops you from taking action?
Is it overwhelm, fear of failure, anxiety, and a host of of blocks, thoughts, and feelings?
How interested would you be in learning a way to effortlessly take action despite them?
When you implement what you are about to learn, you will dramatically reduce your “procrastination time.”
You won’t suddenly become a productivity machine, but you might, because you never know, right?
The simple secret to taking massive action is so simple that you may end up laughing when you discover what it is, but it truly works.
And you will discover exactly what I’m talking about when you use it in your own life.
Looking Into Your Future
When I stop myself from taking action, I look into the future. I try to plan and predict what’s going to happen, and not happen. What I need to do, and not do.
I’m sure you know where that thought process leads, don’t you?
There’s nothing but overwhelm, fear, and anxiety when I go down that path. Even though I know what I’m about to share with you in this article, I still fall into the trap of overwhelm and scaring myself.
And that’s okay. Not always fun, but okay.
What you may not realize, if you’re really good at overwhelming yourself, is that as you take action, you learn and grow.
This means that you cannot effectively plan ahead, because the wiser you become, the more different your future decisions become. You begin to look at things from a whole new perspective.
And this is why going with the flow, trusting your heart, and taking action is so powerful. When you move forward, the pieces of the puzzle fall into place when they need to, and with each piece, you see more and more of the bigger picture.
You don’t have to know everything to know enough.
Setting a goal is all well and good, but it should never stop you from taking action.
The goal is there so you have something to aim at, but you always want to be thinking about what you can do now.
How to Effortlessly Take Action
With all that said, let’s take a look at how you can start to take action right away, shall we?
The secret is asking yourself the following question: What is the next smallest step that I can take, right now?
You don’t have to plan everything, although sometimes it’s helpful, but when it’s not is when it isn’t moving you forward.
We’ve been taught that we need to eliminate uncertainty, but what you may not realize is that without uncertainty, possibility cannot exist.
So if you’ve been planning, and trying to avoid mistakes that you haven’t made yet, I encourage you to ask yourself what the next smallest step is that you can take toward the general direction of your goal.
I told you it was going to be surprisingly simple, and it is.
There is still one more step you can take if you want to take this to the next level.
Feel the End Result, Now
Have you ever made an important decisions while you were feeling bad?
How did it go?
We all have, and the result is often unpleasant, uncomfortable, and unwanted.
This is why I want you to imagine what it would feel like to have already accomplished your goal.
Then feel what it feels like in your body. And from this state of already having the feeling you want to have, ask yourself what the next smallest step is that you can take, right now.
This will get you effortlessly moving in the right direction without overwhelm, fear, or anxiety.
This doesn’t mean you’ll never feel negative, because you will, but it will get you moving, and once you’re moving, you become unstoppable.
You see, when you feel good and make decisions from a state of peace, happiness, joy, inspiration, or even fulfillment, it will lead to more of those feelings.
In short: Feel it, then take action.
Image by Giacomo
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Thanks Henri, this came at the right time. I got a fair amount done yesterday, but I was plagued with doubt all day. I could have used this:
We’ve been taught that we need to eliminate uncertainty, but what you may not realize is that without uncertainty, possibility cannot exist.
I’m always trying to plan everything perfectly so that there’s never any doubt about what to do, but often I get caught up in worrying about how I will handle something 17 steps down the line. Thanks for saying the right thing at the right time.
I fall into the same trap, so I know what it tastes like. It’s all about staying focused on what really matters now, at least for me.
Keep rocking, David!
I’m so glad that I’ve found your website. It just came on right time. I’ve started using your method of setting small goals/tasks for next day and it works pretty well. I guess my earlier mistake was that I was setting too much or too high goals and do not reach them in the end of the day.
And what I found very valuable in this post is ‘You don’t have to know everything to know enough’. I understand it’s not the main idea of the post, but I wish that someone had told me this before.
Thanks, Henri, you are making a great influence in peoples lifes. Take care
That’s awesome, Milda!
And I’m very happy to hear that you’ve picked out exactly what you needed from my post 🙂
Thanks Henri!
I’ve been taking serious action almost every day for over a year now, due to inspiration from folks like you, Allen and Ferriss.
For me, being unproductive (or procrastinating) is miserable. I love being able at the end of the day to look back on those hours and feel proud of what I accomplished. It’s all about planting seeds, right?
Jennifer
Yes it is! Even the smallest seeds can grow into big trees, and you might forget where you planted a seed until it pops up out of nowhere and surprises you with its beauty.
I really appreciate how accurate this article is about why I find myself at a lack of motivation. It is so true that if I just take action and stop worrying about the future then things get accomplished. Everything I read here rings true for me.
Good stuff, William!
Inspiring thoughts … I always have learnt to ‘see the future end result’, but I always had difficulties with it. However, I could easily “feel the future end result”. And it is exactly as you say: “if it feels bad, it will probably be bad”. And when it feels good and I see the actually end result, I tend to get the same “good feeling” again.
So “feeling” is for more accurate than “seeing”.
Thanks for sharing!
Henri – I totally agree on the fear (in fact I just wrote about it on problogger – my first guest post! http://flpbd.it/mQTE). For me I hide behind researching and reading, scared that I haven’t accumulated enough knowledge to be considered an expert!
My husband pointed out that I can get great results when I positively visualize things – I gave myself “rockstar parking” for Christmas 2 years ago and now I’m one of those lucky Parkersburg who gets the good spots.
So I CAN apply this to my blogging… And now I can’t help but throw in my recent guest blogging post as I am overcoming my fear and I am so thrilled and excited! Time to visualize a new goal!
Taking action is one giant leap for yourself and removing your heart from fear. Fear keeps many people stuck in their own misery. Why be miserable when you can take action and be FREE!
Hey there Henri!
I really like how feeling the end result is and how awesome it makes taking the next step possible. It’s as though our minds are conditioned to hold us back from even the simplest step but when we feel great from the end result that hasn’t even happened yet, we start to move and that momentum only builds over time leading to the actual accomplishment.
Great stuff! Thanks!
Henri,
Thank You.
Both planning and taking action are important. We need reflective/meditative skills and a bias for action. It takes two to tango and we need to dance the dance and walk our talk.
Listening to your gut feeling is important. It is strange how we are paralyzed by our need to analyse in detail. Instead, sometimes it is better to go out on a limb and take massive action.
Your post, as usual, was enlightening, so we appreciate your input. Have a good one.
Namaste.
Imagine the outcome you want, yet don’t be attached to it. Let things fall where they may. But like you said, feel awesome about how you’d feel if the outcome was the one you wanted.
Really great post and point Henri. I think this is such powerful advice. We really do have to focus on what we can do right now and not get caught up so much in the future that we end up not moving at all. You are right that it is a simple change in philosophy and it is so necessary. Great insight. Thanks for passing it along.
Hey Henri,
Great post! It’s very, very important to understand this key principle. To get anything done, it’s crucial to simplify goals into simple tasks. It’s okay to plan and set goals, just don’t waste too much time on the future. Just take action. Take baby steps (remember the movie Groundhog Day? – take baby steps to overcome fear, doubt, and uncertainty). Thanks again for the great post.