The power of taking action

You noticed it, right?

If you didn’t then I am going to tell you that I blog what I think and feel in a random fashion with a single goal in mind – to identify what is blocking me to take on the challenge and act on my ideas.

That is the main purpose of my posts here.

Also, like all other bloggers before me, at the back of my mind, I hope that I will inspire you into action too when you read any of my long blog post.

And lastly, here is to cement my habit of writing 500+ words a day and of course, blogging. When I will begin my kickstarva.com operation, I will have to blog everyday or at least regularly each week. By that time, I will have to form a habit of blogging. Hey, I was not a ghostwriter blogger for nothing; if I can this for my clients, why not for my own blog? And so, let’s go back to the why of this blog…

The power of taking action

I have been watching the videos of Ms. Marie Forleo and really, I think she is amazing woman. I like her style and one thing that caught my attention her emphasis on taking action.

You see, coming up with an idea and cooking up a plan is the easy part of a project, whether it will be a personal or work related project. The hardest part is implementing it. Oh, am not saying that because planning is the easy part it would mean it is easy to do. A lot of people I know got stuck with planning and I am one of those people I know of.

But the reason why we get stuck of being stuck is that even when the idea and the plan are already there, we don’t really act on it. Why? Let me enumerate the reasons so it is clear:

1.       We want to make sure everything is perfect.

2.       We fear disappointment and of course, we fear to fail.

3.       We are overwhelmed with so much to do.

4.       When the plan has been drawn, we don’t know if we still have the energy to execute them all.

It is better to start something at 20% perfect than not starting at all

Okay, I am paraphrasing but I mean it as it is. When you aim too much on making something perfect, you will never get to act on it because at the back of our minds this nagging little voice (which is not ours by the way) will say “Nobody is perfect” and of course, because nobody is, it is impossible for you to do something perfectly. So in the end, you will not ACT on your little project or plan because you just can’t seem to make it right.

The thing is, you will need to have feedback to really know if you are doing something right. And you can’t have feedback unless you have started something out for people to check out. So, what should you do so that you can start taking action?

O boy, and I am just so bad with quotes these days, after reading too much of them, so I just got to paraphrase again.

An idea that is not rewritten is just a dream and will never get done…

If you have some idea going on inside your mind, write it down. List all of them. Then pick one that you think you can do right away. You don’t have to do it perfectly, you just get it done.

Of course, it helps to write a plan if this is a bigger project. Identify your actions if they are major actions that require a lot of to do list (mini actions). Just list these out and ensure that every day, you are doing one and at most five mini action steps towards that end goal you have in mind. I am vague, right? No worries, you really don’t have to understand it here. My site, www.kickstartva.com is all about this mini action stuff and I am sharing soon just how to get things done. (I still to launch this though so don't be surprised if I didn't up my products yet :D)

Now, let’s talk about failure

Just what do you think failure is? I see failure as goose bumps and when it is too much to bear, I unload it in a very bionic way (don’t let me share it).

If we think about failure (and do share yours if you don’t see it that way) we think about embarrassments, disappointments, scorn and us being a LOSER.

Hey guys, we win some and we lose some and it is alright because that is life.

A loser is a person who doesn’t do any ACTION and just wallow in fear of failure.

A winner is a person who sees failure, fears failure but has taken ACTION anyways because he knows life doesn’t end in that one moment of failing. What did Thomas Edison say about failure? O, yeah, now he knows hundreds and thousands of ways not to do to make something right.

If you look at it objectively, we are bound to make failures to learn how to do things perfectly. It is not the failing that makes us the loser, it is NOT failing at all that keeps us from winning and make something perfect.

And so you ACT; but where to begin?

This is so totally me. I love planning you see and I do write just about anything I want to do. But when you are taking on a big project, the list of things you need to do just keep on adding up each day! One idea unto another and one to do list to the next – these are utterly OVERWHELMING!

You know, if you got stuck with the circle of to do list, you just got to look at your beginning list and focus on getting it done.

Here’s how it works, if you have endless to do list (these list tend to go on forever) set MILESTONES. Focus on what needs to be done first. And if you get stuck on something especially a bottle neck kind of work, it is not a sin to ask for help. CALL A FRIEND or better yet HIRE SOMEONE to do this for you, there are lots of microjob sites like fiverr and 199jobs.

Three things you just need to remember to stop being overwhelmed with lots of things to do:

KIS

GOI

JGID

Keep It Simple! Get Over It! Just Get It Done!

Lost your energy on planning alone

Yeah, planning can be tiresome! You know, if you feel you have lost all your energy you can actually REST and just VISUALIZE how you would look like if you have get everything done. Be careful with your visualization though. DO NOT VISUALIZE ABOUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE! Visualize about how you are enjoying your business or how you are having fun with the fruits of your labor.

Just don’t over rest okay. To ensure you don’t rest overlong, you need to set a deadline on your projects. You have to follow a timeline. You can set a day where you need to have everything set up.

And to make everything interesting, have yourself an ACCOUNTABILITY friend. This friend you will need to ask to remind you where you are, how your project is and what is going on. If this is a friend or someone you pay to make you accountable with your actions, please be NICE if they have become annoying on reminding you what needs to be done.

So, I think I got it all covered.

Now, let me be your Accountability online partner!

List down the things you want to do, choose one you think you like to take action on. Then set a time each day to do one or five mini actions. Share with me what these are and the deadline you want everything to get done. I will, of course, give you friendly reminders. :)

Are you cool with that? Just visit my site www.kickstartva.com, just fill the contact form and I will send you email to remind you where you are in your action plan. Or, if you need to have an action plan template, you can ask me that too.

Looking forward to hearing from you!