This is a guest post from Oscar Del Ben, an up and coming personal development blogger. In this post he’s going to give us a simple motivational guide to take action. Enjoy!
So you’ve figured out what you want to do, you’ve seen other succeed before and you want do the same.
Now you need to take action, but you probably also need to gain some motivation first.
Let’s be honest, without doing something, you’ll hardly get what you want in life. The feeling of stuck that you experience when you are starting out is normal, and every successful people has come through it in the beginning.
Fortunately, once you learn how to deal with that feeling, things will start to get done, and the results will come. It’s like moving a giant ball, it’s hard in the beginning, but it gets easier and easier as you get going.
So are you ready to learn how to be motivated and start to get things done?
Here’s how to do it.
- Make a plan. Start from where you are now, and write down the steps you’ll need to take to reach your dream. Don’t worry about creating the perfect plan, you’ll adjust it along the way. Some people prefer to do this step the other way around, by starting at the end and moving backwards until where they are now, that’s fine too. If you have trouble thinking at what should be your next step, write down the thing that you think would be more likely to push you closer to your goal.
- Reinforce your thoughts. Repeating motivational quotes is a powerful tool to develop your do habit. I usually repeat a few phrases in the morning, or when I get stuck. I’ve found that once you find a quote that makes sense to you, it’s hard to not move accordingly. Some of my preferred ones are: If you try, then there’s a change it might work. If you don’t, then it’s guaranteed it won’t work – We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.– Am I inventing things to avoid the important?
- Commit publicly. An easy way to get a boost of motivation is to commit your goals publicly. For example when I started my pushups challenge I knew it was going to be hard for me, so I announced it on my blog. When you show people that you do what you say no matter what happens, you’ll gain respect and trust. You can either commit on your blog, or with your family and friends.
- Just get started. Don’t focus on the whole task from the beginning. Take the first step and motivation will come. Leo teaches us this concept very well. I’ve learned from him that when I have to go out for a morning run, I just have to put my running shoes and get outside of the door, by that time I’ll be already highly motivated to do the rest. This is true for virtually every other task or activity, as it’s easier for your brain to focus on a little thing and then get going.
- Adjust along the way. It has been said that the best way to learn something is by doing it, and it’s true. No matter how hard you worked in your initial plan, unexpected events will happen, and you’ll have to adjust your plan accordingly. You’d be surprised by how many businesses start with an initial idea and then make a fortune in a very different area.
- Do less. Don’t get trapped by working too much. The goal is to eventually do less. You have already heard of the 80/20 rule, now it’s time to apply it to your business. Get rid of unimportant tasks and focus on what truly matters. Remember that doing something unimportant well does not make it important, and being busy is a form of laziness. Learn from your experiences and do more of what provides the greatest results.
Sometimes it’s easy to procrastinate and forget that doing stuff is what truly matters. Don’t let that happen to you. Start today working on your dreams, you only need to take one step at a time.
Life reserves awesome things for those who are willing to create something, so create.
Author bio: Oscar Del Ben writes about Personal Development, Productivity and Life at FreestyleMind.com.
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A very cool post. I will link to it from my site. Thanks for this list!
Well said Oscar!
Mindset is important, visualizing is important, being clear is important, but until something actually moves (taking action), nothing happens.
There’s very little that massive action can’t overcome.
Thanks for the great post, and keep up the good work!
.-= Colin´s last blog ..How To Change Your Life: Part 4 – Taking Action =-.
This is a fantastic list, and it’s the sort of thing that keeps me motivated. When I get frustrated, and down on myself, reminding myself to just get out there and do it is HUGE. Thanks!
.-= jforest´s last blog ..Top 5 photography tips I’ve learned so far =-.
Hello Oscar and Dragos,
I’d like to add, however, that it’s also a good thing to have an inspiration whenever you plan on doing something. A strong desire will give you enough fuel to move those mental and physical muscles to get a job done or to meet a specific objective, but without inspiration, there’s nothing you can use to light that fuel to make it burn. Anyway, I enjoyed reading the article. Do keep on motivating people. We all need to become inspired in this very dark day and age.
Cheers,
Ryhen
.-= Ryhen | Mind Power´s last blog ..Cause and Effect: How To Really Change The World =-.
It’s true that we need motivation. In this article I just pointed that getting started is one way to gain quick motivation, however we could discuss the topic in greater detail into another post 🙂
.-= Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..The Worst Breakfast =-.
I love blog posts that spur you into action with simple, doable tips.
Thanks for writing.
Glad you enjoyed it Brad, now remember to take action 😉
.-= Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..The Worst Breakfast =-.
Hi Oscar, Dragos,
Great post and insightful comments as well. I might be biased by my project management experience, but IMO there there is one bullet missing (somewhere between plan and action): making sure that you have the right resources for going ahead, other than the mental toughness. And I am not talking just about the “usual suspects” (like time and money), but more like an “experience”-like resource, such as learning – what do I need to learn / know before taking action? Again, I wanted to share this as in my experience, having this item added on my checklist increases my confidence, and therefore, is a great “motivational” tool.
You raised an interesting point. However I’m not always sure what I’m going to need for a project, that’s why I skipped that part. Very interesting tough and thanks for pointing it out.
.-= Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..Interview With Dragos Roua =-.
Just getting started is a really important one. It’s often hard to get started, but once we get going, it’s easier to keep going than it is to start, stop, start, stop.
.-= Gordie´s last blog ..Lifestyle Design Begins at Home. =-.
Yes Gordie, it’s like trying to move a giant ball. It’s hard in the beginning but then it’s really easy to keep going.
.-= Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..Interview With Dragos Roua =-.
I just wrote down my goals and it included the bad habits I wish to break. Not smoking or anything but stuff like bad choices in men and stuff of that nature. Plus, I added some of these things to my Twitter stream. I am making an effort to become successful. Which I haven’t done in the past. I ask questions.
.-= Jamie Favreau´s last blog ..Social Media to Save the NHL (Last installment a bit late) =-.
That’s awesome Jamie!
.-= Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..Interview With Dragos Roua =-.
Great post as usual Oscar! I think you’ve laid-out a very clear, simple, and most importantly, easy-to-follow method of achieving one’s aspirations. I especially like the idea about making your goals public. It is a great way to make yourself accountable. However, it can also sometimes bite you in the ass if you know people who might bring you down or disparage you. You have to sometimes be careful who you tell your dreams to.
But overall, this was a really fantastic post! Thank you to Dragos for hosting it!
.-= Steven Handel | The Emotion Machine´s last blog ..Everyone Needs A Creative Endeavor =-.
Thanks Steven 🙂
.-= Oscar – freestyle mind´s last blog ..Interview With Dragos Roua =-.