5 Tips for acting on your goals
- Do at least one thing each day toward your goal – Be productive. Actions = Results.
- Avoid lazy people – Your success is influenced by the people in your circle.
- Work harder – Outwork the competition. Work while they sleep. Plan while they party.
- Be consistent – Practice implementing productive habits daily.
- Take risks – You’ve got to take risks in order to grow. Get out your comfort zone.
Do at least one thing each day toward your goals
Don’t let the sun set without taking action and doing at least one thing to bring you closer to your goals. Make that call, do some research, put in those applications, enroll for those classes, set that appointment, make that investment, read that book.
Having goals and plans are important, but action is what really produces results. Without acting on your ideas, that’s all they’ll ever be. Just ideas.
One small productive habit each day will make a big impact in the long run. The times going to pass anyway, so make it count.
Avoid lazy people
They say your success is influenced by the five closest people in your circle. And I’m sure you’ve heard the age old proverb, “Judge a man by the company he keeps.” Or how about, “Hang around the barber shop long enough and you’re bound to get a cut.”
What each of these sayings have in common is they all describe the impact the influence of other people have on our lives and our characters. We tend to gravitate towards people with like minds, and of similar interests.
So with that being said, what type of people are you hanging around? Are they influencing you to get further in life? Or are they holding you back from making progress?
On the other hand, maybe you might be the positive influence someone else needs to motivate and inspire them.
Work harder
There’s no substitute for hard work. Well there is, if you’ve got the money to hire others to do the hard work for you. No but really, for those of us who can’t at the moment, we’ve got to outwork the competition.
In addition, although delegating tasks is part of leadership, sometimes the effort others put into our projects just aren’t the way we would’ve done it.
In that case, you’ve got to go hard or go home. Work while others are sleeping. Develop plans while others are partying. Spend five hours on a project while others spend one. Stay up late and wake up early.
Actions produce results. The more productive we are in taking action, the more results we’ll see.
Be consistent
Have you ever heard a motivational speech and felt fired up, ready to take off and get your ideas in motion? You got home and wrote things down you were going to do tomorrow to act on your goals. Then two days later all those plans went out the window and you were back to the old you?
That’s because we’ve got to be consistent. We’ve got to be motivating ourselves daily, writing our goals daily, and taking action daily.
There was a study conducted by a plastic surgeon in the 1950’s, Dr. Maltz. Maltz observed patients who’ve undergone procedures such as nose jobs and amputations experience similar patterns after surgery.
It took patients an average of 21 days to adjust to new changes. Hence, “The 21 day rule”. In reality, more recent studies show it actually takes 60 days to 10 months to form new habits.
Practice being consistent by taking action and making new productive habits a lifestyle. Before you know it they’ll become personal character traits that others admire you for.
Take Risks
“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.” -John Augustus Shedd
You might be a seasoned gambler and familiar with taking risks, but not everyone is used to going all in or putting all their chips on the pass line.
Either way, you can’t play it safe all your life and expect extraordinary results. Sometimes in life you’ve got to take risks. Calculated risks of course, but risks nonetheless.
After studying so many successful entrepreneurs I’ve noticed that they have all taken major risks in early stages of their career. They’ve all taken leaps of faith and grew wings on the way down. You will never know unless you try.