Here’s everything you need to know about how take action and make 2020 the most magical fucking year of your life.
Stuck in indecision or uncertainty about what move to make next in your life or business? Can’t get your nerve up to ask that influencer about collaborating? Hire your first virtual assistant?
Sitting in front of your computer entertaining thoughts of not-good-enough and believing them…again?
Tired of your own bullshit and ready to make a change for good?
Whatever helps entrepreneurs move that nagging-good feeling of courage into purpose-driven action is the solution to most people’s biggest struggle; doing what they already know they need to do to move forward and make all their dreams come true.
If you figure out the secret to your own lack of action, you’ll enjoy the magic that is a purpose-driven, action-led life. And you’ll be running all over the place wanting to tell everyone. Kinda like me.
Take Positive Action
I know you’ve read the books, listened to the motivational recordings, watched the TEDx talks and visualized yourself in the life you crave. I know you’ve practiced the awareness, meditated into your miracle mornings, and chanted the perfect gratitude affirmations into the mirror.
Those actions are a start. But it’s not the action I’m talking about. The foundational energy, positivity and practices you put into place are the fertile soil and sunshine for the seeds you must then plant. If you’ve forgotten that you actually need to go get your hands dirty, I’m here to help you with that last and most crucial piece.
Taking consistent, aligned action no matter what the voices in your head are saying is the secret to everything you want. Do you even realize that you’re over thinking everything, and worse, making everything mean something that then paralyzes you?
Stop that!
If it were only that easy, right? Actually it is that easy. You just think it’s not. In fact you’ve been convincing yourself for decades that “it” is this way or that way, without even knowing why you’re doing it.
Yes, this is an awareness game. Yes it’s a mindset game too. But beyond the thinking there’s a field called “Take some fucking action.” Join me there will you?
Because here’s the thing, you can sit there over thinking and analyzing everything, you can get it right or perfect first, you can prepare until you’re more ready, better, good enough or until you have the money, or more resources or time…but if you choose that path one more time, you’ll stay stuck. “If you always do what you’ve always done…”
Time to break the habits and retrain yourself to do something better. With awareness you get a choice. With awareness you take full responsibility for those choices.
And you’re forgetting something important. It’s in the middle of your imperfect, not-good-enough action that your next best step will show itself to you.
The action is the answer to the clarity.
The Definition of Action
I want you to think purpose-driven, aligned action, not just the act or process of doing something. What this requires is having a clear vision of what you’re going for that’s big enough to scare you a little.
You might take a moment to write that down in a notebook right now and have it next to you while you read the rest of this. Ooh, look at you, you’re taking some aligned action already! I love it!
Most of you are with me in terms of a vision that scares you. Terrified. And you’re sitting in your discomfort zone a little stuck because the feeling in your gut reminds you of that big mistake or failure that you’ll do anything to avoid again.
And don’t start in with the excuse that you don’t have enough clarity yet.
Clarity is gained through action, not thinking. We’ll get to that more later. For now, have an idea what you want and get used to the feeling of purpose-driven fear being a compass that points you to the action you need to take to make it all a reality.
The Importance of Taking Action
Action is what separates the successful people and the not-so. If you’re ready to be on that winning team then action is what gets you there. Everything you want is going to happen by taking some action; small, medium or large.
It’s not really about the size of the action, it’s more about the momentum of the action itself. A little bit leads to more.
Taking action means you’re feeling fear and doing it anyway. Taking action also means you’re honoring yourself and your dreams, which is a direct connection with your soul. You’re paying attention instead of ignoring what your soul is speaking. This is energy and Law of Attraction 101. It’s how we manifest what we desire.
Through the experiments of taking aligned action we’re led to the next best step, connection, conversation, or idea. Meditation is a great tool, but unless you move on the inspired idea that came through, nothing much else will happen. In fact, if you don’t make the call, send the email, or set up the coffee date, someone else will.
Remember, it’s the seed planting that creates the harvest. Go get your hands dirty. And here are more things you need to understand about the truth of action taking.
The Truth About Taking Action
I loved Kyle Eschenroeder’s list of “11 overlooked truths about action.” What you need to know is that everything you’ve believed about it in the past is wrong and is paralyzing you.
Taking action gives you the courage and motivation you crave. You don’t need more courage, confidence or motivation. You need to figure out how to take action without them. Then you’ll reap the rewards of those things.
In fact, if you want to go for the biggest question of all and dive into finding the meaning of life for yourself, the biggest spiritual journey of all time, you’re going to quickly see that taking action in that life is what matters the most. What you choose to do with yourself, and your life, is more the solution than anything you can come up with in your head about your purpose.
Taking action will…
Take less time than strategizing
Create more possibilities
Be less scary
Give you more answers
Give you a better chance at success
And make you more resilient, motivated and confident
…than not taking action.
Had enough of a pep talk yet?
Let’s get to some how-to’s because unless you apply what you’re reading, nothing’s going to change.
How to Take Action
All the success gurus, including the likes of Brendon Burchard and Jack Canfield tell us we must take some action every day. One says do three things every day. The other says five. Another successful business owner I know says ten. You know what I say? No rules.
Just do something every day. Anything.
Because if you’re getting stuck on a specific number that then sets you up for “failure” you’re less likely to try again. Just do something every day. On the days you can do more, do more. On the days you’re feeling like an action-taking rock star, blow them away and be unforgettable.
Here is a list of some actions you can take right now:
Make the phone call
Send the email
Set up the coffee date
Ask for what you want
Write the blog
Journal the ideas
Outline the book
Ask for a connection
Message your new friend
Sign up for the event
Hire the assistant
Register for the conference
Reach out to a mentor
Ask for the collaboration
Ask
Ask
Ask
In a little bit I’m going to lay out ten powerful tools and exercises you can use to take your action-taking up a notch and create the life and business of your dreams this year. For now let’s bust up all the excuses you came up with for the list above.
Excuse Busters for Inaction
Have you all read Dr. Wayne Dyer’s book, Excuses Begone? I had a great time reading that and busting up my own excuses for not taking the action I knew I needed to take to get me to the next level. Oh, that inner critic, self-sabotaging bitch. She’s so stuck. She’s so relentless. And it seems like the bigger I decide to play in the world, the harder she tries to fuck it all up for me.
You’ll never be as good as ____, was a regular thought in my head when I planned on reciting my poetry on stage. You’ll make a fool of yourself, was a stronger one that kept me paralyzed for a long, long time.
Then when I actually stood on a stage and recited a poem that led to a crowd full of claps and snaps the drive home would be torture. You messed up that one line. You forgot to tell everyone your website. Holy crap, can I just have one moment of celebration?
The upper limit problem is a thing Gay Hendricks talks about in another really awesome book called The Big Leap.
Bottom line for excuses and self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors?
You have to wake the fuck up to them, recognize what’s happening, remind yourself of who you are and the world-changing goals you have, put the face of your purpose in front of you every day, and then flip the switch to some purpose-driven action that aligns better with those goals.
In “10 Inner Critic-Busting Comebacks for When Those Voices Get Loud,” I help you with a few of the excuses and what to do about them. Problem is, just when you think you’ve mastered the awareness, in pops another voice weaseling its way in and making you believe you’ve got another good excuse for your lack of action.
And you’re sitting there paralyzed again. It’s the awareness and action taking that will pull you out of the pit.
In Kyle Eschenroeder’s article he lays out “twenty antidotes to perfectly good reasons for inaction.” Between my ten and his twenty, we have most of them covered. Here’s what I need you to do though. Take a moment to write down the voices that are the worst for you. What messages or repetitive tapes have been playing in your head since you were a kid? What have you been thinking or believing about yourself or your abilities?
Writing these down gets them outside of you, on paper, and observable. This kind of awareness is what you’ll need to practice to be able to create a new habit and positive voice.
Limiting beliefs must be regularly addressed and questioned if we’re going to be able to move from inaction to purpose-driven action. This is an awareness and mindset game, however in the gigantic chasm between the negative thought and the action you need to take to get to where you want to go is a visceral sensation of fear that thinks it’s protecting you.
It’s the differentiating between a survival type of fear and the purpose-driven kind that will help you master the action taking. You’ll know exactly when it’s a self-sabotaging thought or behavior (inaction) vs. when an aligned action needs to take place to move you forward. And the idea is to get really good at taking that kind of action, no matter what you’re feeling or thinking.
Let’s give you the tools now for just that.
10 Badass Tools For How to Take Action
In the following list of tools and exercises I include what’s been researched as the some of the best ways to make your goals a reality; writing them down, stating them out loud and having accountability to others. There are a lot of mindset and awareness tools and techniques that will help you get to a place of thinking better about all this, but it’s the action taking I want to emphasize. Because it’s the action taking that will make a bigger impact.
You need the positive thinking.
You need the action taking more.
If you’re reading all this and still stuck, then you’ll need to develop a discipline of fear-busting thoughts and beliefs that serve you better, but I’m telling you, if you can find a way to shut down that over-thinking, over-analyzing, self-sabotaging mind for two seconds and take a little action instead, all the rest will fall into place.
Here’s what I want you to make a priority this year in terms of badass action:
- Write and speak your dream out loud to someone else and then join a community where they actually hold you accountable to it.
- Reach out every day and connect with people.
- Practice awareness of your inner critic voices, thoughts and beliefs and put tools into place to flip the switch every single day.
- Get out of the house and meet people in person.
- Join or create a small group of action takers and meet regularly.
- Journal your goals, thoughts, dreams, action steps, progress every week.
- Practice fierce self care of mind/body/soul every day/week.
- Hire a coach or mentor and meet consistently.
- Get still and clear your mind every day.
- Invest in yourself. 1. Write and Speak it Out Loud
When it’s out loud it’s real. So I need you to grab your notebook right now and write down your goals, your vision, your mission statement, the quotes you love, the manifesto you live by, everything. Write. It. Down.
Writing down goals makes them hugely more likely they’ll become a reality. Want to take that all up a notch? Speak your vision and goals out loud to a fellow entrepreneur, mentor, coach or loved one who gets it.
When you move the thoughts into the vibration of your words and voice you speak them into existence. It’s all energy. Time to master it.
2. Connect With People Every Day
In general other people are going to help you get to where you want to go. So if you’re spending most of your time working on things that don’t involve speaking to or interacting with others, you’re not going to make the connections or have the conversations that will ensure the next step in the evolution of your journey.
Create a goal to reach out to ____ people a day. Fill in that blank with a doable number. Now, go reach out to someone. Yes, before you read the rest of this. Action is a habit you create. Now is the time. Seriously. Go. Do. It.
3. Practice Awareness
Nothing good happens without first being aware. So be aware of what you want, what’s feeling good, what feels like purpose-driven fear, what thoughts are limiting you, and what behaviors will help you move toward the things you want.
Write all this down. Create lists that are in front of you every day. Do the most important tasks first. Prioritize the stuff that feels scary-good. Talk to people about what you did. And didn’t do today.
4. Meet People In Person
Get out of your house and go be with people in person. Meet for coffee. Meet for lunch. Go to networking events. Go to conferences. Shake hands. Give hugs. Feel people’s energy. Get good at shining your good vibes out to others. Practice feeling the fear and talking to people anyway.
This is really for my introverted anti-social badasses who’ve had to move through a lifetime’s worth of unworthiness and get to the point they enjoy being with people. It’s really hard. Torture sometimes. But the energy is real and can be magical. Don’t hide behind your computer all the time. We have more opportunity to hide than every before. But it’s in the physical connections with real humans that the most potential for life-changing things happen.
Go be with people. Set a goal now. I’m going to set up _____ in-person meetings a month. Now, go set one up. Yes, before you read the rest of this. Seriously. Go. Do. It.
5. Create What You Need
Have you head the statement “Create what you need.” I love doing this. The best things I’ve created were because I needed them. I also love, “We teach what we most need to learn.” You can offer your knowledge to others and also be in a beginner’s mindset. That’s one of the marks of a true master.
What are you looking for? A mastermind for your business? A Facebook group for support? A book club that reads self-help? A resource library for your writing?
Go create it. Find the people you need. Collaborate. Go make something. Chances are, if you need it, many others do to.
6. Journal Everything
I already talked about writing things down, and by now, if you’ve been paying attention you’ve been writing as you read. I’d like to inspire you to do something more with your writing. Allow it to be a direct connection to your intuition and inner guide. Let your writing be a magical tool that answers every question you have about everything in your life you’re wondering.
It’s that powerful.
I have so many notebooks around my house it’s crazy. I write all my ideas, outline all my books, write down all my favorite quotes, create all my to-do lists, put all my inspired thoughts onto paper because when it’s out of my head and onto the page, it’s real and it helps to keep me accountable.
But I do something else. I connect with my body and breath before I write. I’ve created a habit of clearing my mind and allowing my writing to come from an embodied place. I let something bigger take the pen.
You’ve heard of writing being channeled before? But I bet you thought that was for special people with extraordinary gifts. Guess what? You can channel your writing from “Source.” It’s all energy. And it just requires you practicing the connection with your body-mind, quieting that mind and centering so that you can “hear” the messages that want to come through. They are there all day long, and are available to you at any time.
You can start by taking three to five minutes to close your eyes, relax, breathe and clear your mind. Try to allow thoughts to come and release them as you connect with the sensation of the breath and body instead. Do this for several minutes and then open your eyes, set a timer for five minutes, grab your pen and write as fast as you can. If a prompt is helpful, try filling in the blank: I feel _____. Don’t censor yourself. Just write without any rules until the timer goes off.
The more you get used to this kind of “automatic” or “free” writing the more you’ll realize you’re connecting with a deeper part of you; your higher self. You’ll begin to clear the mind clutter and allow the intuitional messages to move through instead.
Go try it now.
7. Practice Fierce Self Care
This action is necessary and I need you to stop ignoring the billion messages the world is giving you about self care and actually create a discipline of it this year that feeds you.
Stop worrying about your self care taking away from your productivity and realize that the more self care you practice, the more energized and productive you’ll actually be.
Whatever form of self care your mind-body needs, whether that be exercise, better nutrition, meditation, massage, a walk in nature, a bath, a nap, saying no to extra events, or scheduling your writing time, you must prioritize it. Today.
Grab your calendar and start scheduling. Because if it’s not scheduled, it’s not real. I want you to schedule out your self care for six to twelve months. And then get really good at protecting that time.
This action will be by far the most magical, joy-producing, life-changing thing you’ve ever done for yourself. You were born, so you’re worthy. And nobody, not your spouse, your kids, your boss, your co-workers, your friends…nobody will benefit from you being tired, burned out, sick or just plain grumpy.
Take full responsibility for your energy, your health and your joy. Today. Do what you need to do to turn this in a direction that is self sustaining. Stop worrying what others will think about you and do what you need to do to heal yourself. It’s all that matters if you’re interested in changing the world.
8. Hire a Coach
The best coaches have coaches. The most successful, accountable, extraordinary people know that learning from others is something that’s non-negotiable.
One tip I’ll give you in this arena is to get some good recommendations first and interview your prospects before you whip out the credit card. Look for people who are doing what you want to be doing and ask them who coached them.
What’s an area you’d like to excel in this year? Do you want to write your book? Do you want to be a better speaker? Do you want to be a badass at business development? Hire someone to take you to the next level. I’ll talk about investing in yourself more in a minute, but hiring the people who will help you evolve, make the connections you need to make and help you learn the secrets to the answers you’ve been searching for is necessary. We don’t go bigger on our own.
Still convinced you can do it all by yourself, or YouTube it all for free? Stop that. You’ll get to where you want to go much faster and create the quality connections you crave by hiring a mentor or coach. Don’t procrastinate.
Take some time today to research and find three names of people you’d like to interview.
9. Get Still More Often
This is in here again because you’re really good at listening to your worry and fear voice and you’re not so good at connecting to your intuition and powerhouse voice. You have an extraordinarily powerful connection to the only voice you ever need to listen to when it comes to your life. And you tend to listen to everyone else instead. Including what your own thoughts are telling you about yourself.
Getting still more often (yes I’m talking about the “M” word) will help you connect to the powerhouse voice. She’s in there. I promise you. It’s just that nobody taught you how to listen. So I am. Quiet your mind more often. Feel more often. The feelings and sensations are the GPS system for your soul. The messages you need are going to come from an inner voice.
You don’t have to sit on a pillow for an hour with your legs crossed. Seriously. So stop using that excuses. Take five minutes and just sit in a quiet place and breathe. And then do that more often. Do a little journaling afterward and see what comes.
10. Invest in Yourself
This is here to help the people with the “I can’t afford it” excuse to bust that up once and for all and realize you will afford what matters to you. You matter to you, right? And if that’s not enough, like you can’t get excited about loving yourself enough to do this for you, well then here’s something that helped me:
“Your fear of not-good-enough is boring. This isn’t about you anymore. What if the thing you’re still afraid to do is exactly what will help change, or even save someone else’s life? It’s time to be brave.” (An excerpt from How to Have Fun With Your Fear and Change the World, due out in 2020.)
Watch this video for some extra inspiration about your life’s purpose:
If you’re ready to take things further but you’re terrified to make a mistake, lose your investment, fail, realize you’re nowhere afterward, or any of the other thoughts I know keep you from doing exactly what you know you need to do to make your big dreams come true, I need you to remember that it’s getting comfortable in that discomfort zone that creates all the magic. It’s exactly the thing that scares the shit out of you that you need to do.
And of course – if I had the answer to this billion dollar question of what will get you to take that action, well…I might be typing this from my retreat villa in Tahiti. But I hope you get that the only thing in the way of you investing in yourself this year in a way that takes everything to the next level in your life and business, including the finances, connections and resources you dream of, is you—then I’ve done my job.
What action will you take now? If this all wasn’t enough, here are seven more action taking suggestions for your toolbox.
7 More Action-Taking Exercises
1. Write down your vision.
When you write it down, you claim it out loud and it starts everything in motion. Don’t worry, you can always change your mind and update it later.
2. Write out your self-sabotaging thoughts.
This is an awareness tool. Get it out of you. I write to Feng Shui my soul. That way there’s more room for the good stuff.
3. Talk about your vision to someone who gets it.
Pick your people and have great conversations. Negativity or pessimism should be a deal breaker. Be unapologetic about the company you keep when it comes to your dreams.
4. Know what’s yours to do.
Stay in the lane of what matters to you. Get good at delegating the stuff that’s not directly related to your vision.
5. Take up breath work.
Another form of the awareness I talked about. The breath is the quickest way to the bigger connection.
6. Unplug for a day
Your mind and body will love you. Get rid of all the distractions and challenge yourself to a day without technology. You’ll thank me later.
7. Remember life is short, play hard.
Listen, we’re all going to die. We are not guaranteed tomorrow. You have big gifts and huge dreams. What are we doing here if we aren’t going for the big love, joy and gratitude? Go for it. Feel the fear and go for your best possible life anyway.
Got a tip about how you’ve been able to take more action! Add it to the comments!
Laura has a third-degree black belt and a clear preference for traveling fast and being badass. But she is also the pragmatic champion of small business owners who want to push their health-based practices to the next level but need a little help to do so. Through her Bethesda-based Brave Healer Productions, Laura offers inspiring speeches, workshops, an online writing club and other services that can help talented health professionals tell their own stories so they too can maximize their professional impact. Laura has a built a powerful community of brave healers who are learning to spread their message of health and empowerment in much bigger ways. With almost three decades of expertise in holistic physical therapy behind her, she has written six books including her latest, the aptly titled Brave Healing, a Guide for Your Journey. Shouldn’t Laura be helping you with your journey? Learn more at BraveHealer.com.
