The MONTHLY Motivator - Getting It Done
By Ralph Marston
These strategies will enable you to bridge the critical gap between thinking positively and acting positively, to make the important connection between intentions and results.
Every person of accomplishment must not only think, but also do. Good intentions and high expectations are great, yet they're only a starting point. As soon as they're formulated, it is time for real, substantial action to begin. Action is what separates dreamers from achievers.
The bottom line is this. If you are going to accomplish anything, you must take action. No one can do it for you. Your success depends on your ability to translate your desires and ideas into reality through the use of effective action. There is simply no way around that.
The good news is that making things happen is a skill that can be learned and perfected. If you've found yourself in the past to be lacking in discipline and unable to take action, be assured that it does not have to be a permanent condition.
If you find yourself thinking "Yeah, that's easy for YOU to say" whenever you're advised to "just do it" or to "just say no" you're absolutely right. It is very easy for someone to offer such advice, and actually heeding such advice can require tremendous effort. Yet it can certainly be done, and it is done on a daily basis by successful, effective people all over the world. No matter what your level of physical, mental or emotional ability, there's nothing that inherently prevents you from taking effective, goal-oriented action. Success in any endeavor is available to you when you learn how to achieve it and then put your knowledge into practice.
Different people have developed different strategies for getting things accomplished, for turning what needs to be done into what has been done. So let's take a look at some of those strategies. As you read about each one, consider how you could apply it to your own situation.
Know specifically what must be done
Don't just say, for example, "I need to clean out the garage." That's too vague. Be specific. "I need to discard the old lawnmower, put that box of old jars in the attic, give away the box of old toys, organize the pile of garden tools, and clean out the trash behind the washing machine." That gives you a specific set of actions to take. If you don't know precisely what must be done, how can you expect to do it?
Write down exactly what you intend to do
This serves many very good purposes. Putting your proposed actions in writing helps you to be specific about them. It also helps you to remember them. It challenges you. There's something about writing a "to do" list that compels you to do those things. Perhaps it is the feeling of accomplishment when you are able to actually check off the items on the list after completing each one.
Interestingly, there are many things we would not hesitate to do if we could just remember that we need to do them. Inaction may often be due to nothing more than not keeping track of what needs to be done.
When you have a written list, you're never left wondering what to do next. A great deal of wasted time comes from keeping track of what still needs to be done. A written list can significantly cut down on this waste.
Putting your list in writing also helps you to organize your activities. You may discover, for example, that two or three of the things on your list require you to travel to the same part of town. Realizing this in advance would enable you to organize them all into a single outing, rather than making a separate trip for each one.
Make sure you fully understand why things must be done
This is a key strategy in accomplishing anything. In order to have a true commitment to action, you must have a meaningful reason. Make the connection between what must be done and why it must be done. Often the connection is not direct. For example, you may need to finish a report to fulfill your obligation to your company's customer, so the customer will pay your company, so your company will remain prosperous, so you'll continue to be employed there, so you'll have a regular income, so you can make the house payments, so your family will have a place to live. When the connection between what and why has so many levels of indirection, that makes it all the more important that you understand and appreciate the connection.
Everything we do, we do for a reason. Look at your life and your actions on the "why" level. Proceed with that perspective and it will strengthen your ability and resolve to actually get things done.
If there's something you're having trouble getting yourself to do, seek to better understand why it must be done. Don't stop with the first answer. When you've determined why you're doing it, ask why again, and again, until you arrive at a reason that is personally meaningful and highly compelling.
For example, let's say you've been putting off learning a new computer program. So you ask yourself why you need to learn it. The answer is, so you can prepare a certain presentation. Ask yourself why you need to prepare the presentation. The answer -- so you can make a sale to a particular client. So why do you need to make the sale to that client? Keep asking why until you arrive at a reason so compelling you cannot bear to refuse it.
Make a plan
OK, if you don't think you can take action right now here's an alternate suggestion -- make a plan. Making a detailed, realistic plan will serve to draw you into taking action. Proper planning helps to eliminate many of the excuses you might have for not taking action. A good plan will show you exactly what to do and, just as importantly, it will help to convince you that it can indeed be done. Good planning will significantly reduce the fear of failure that so often prevents things from being undertaken.
At some point, you will need to take action. If you're not there yet, making a plan can bridge the gap between "thinking about it" and actually "doing it." Put your initial efforts into planning, and the transition to action will be virtually seamless. By creating a plan, you're investing yourself in the eventual action. Once you've made that investment, you're much more likely to do the necessary things that will make it pay off.
The incremental approach
One great way to get yourself going is to start with small actions, realize and appreciate their value, and then gradually add to them. Many things that you must do can seem overwhelming before you start to do them. Often it is helpful to approach them gradually and incrementally. The prospect of building a fence around your entire property may seem overwhelming. So start with a single fence post. That's not so much. When that one is finished, move on to the next one.
There is often a wide gulf in the mind between "I need to do that" and "I can do that!" The incremental approach requires that you find an initial "I can do that!" activity -- something you know without a doubt that you can do. Most large efforts can be subdivided into smaller, more manageable efforts.
As you succeed at each of the smaller efforts, a couple of very positive things happen. First, your confidence grows and as a result you find yourself more likely to bite off bigger and bigger chunks. Your competence grows as well, and makes you more effective. Starting small, with something you can easily imagine yourself doing, puts you on an upward spiral toward success. Not only will your confidence and competence grow, so will your enthusiasm and commitment. As you see and appreciate the positive impact of each effort, you'll be more and more motivated to take on additional, more challenging efforts.
The fact is, for everything that needs to be done, there is something which you can do right now. Even the most ambitious project can begin with a small, minimally challenging effort. It is great to have high expectations. Just remember that you must connect those expectations to reality. That's not to say that the expectations must be diminished, just that you must find a realistic and attainable starting point that will move you in the direction of those expectations.
Dive right in - sink or swim
A completely opposite, yet potentially just as effective, approach is to impulsively dive right into something in such a way that there's no turning back. This approach can be very effective for those who tend to be impulsive anyway. It's not so much a way to get you started initially. It is more of a strategy to keep you going. The key is to make sure that there's no possibility for turning back or for failing to see the action through to completion.
Perhaps you need to design a new sales brochure for your business, but you've been putting it off now for several months. Using the "dive right in" approach, you simply take all the remaining printed stock of your old brochures and dump them in the recycling bin. Then there's no turning back. You MUST design and produce a new brochure.
Though you may at times wonder "what have I gotten myself into?" the very necessity of getting the work done will pull you through. Somehow, some way, you'll find a way to do it.
Challenge yourself
A related strategy for taking action is to put yourself in a challenging position. Most people respond very well to challenge, either from themselves or others. Challenge, by its very nature, is usually clear and specific. It can often outline a very definite path to follow, and will give you the energy necessary to do it.
Have you ever known anyone who has become motivated to do something as a result of being told he or she could not do it? Perhaps you are such a person. Challenge has a way of energizing the will. Challenge can get you going when nothing else is able to do so.
Consider putting yourself in a challenging position. You can of course issue a private challenge to yourself. However, challenge is a more powerful motivator when it comes from the outside.
One of the best ways to convert a private challenge into a public one is to announce your intentions. It's one thing to set a goal of increasing your sales by 50% this month. Yet that challenge takes on added dimension when you announce your goal to the entire sales team.
Challenges can backfire if they're unrealistically high. They should be enough out of reach to make you a little uncomfortable and thereby to motivate you, while still being within the realm of possibility.
Make a strong connection using fear and/or desire
The two most powerful motivators are fear and desire. You can harness their power to get yourself going. Some people respond more to fear. Others are more responsive to desire as a driving force. And there are those who respond about equally to fear and desire. If you take a look at the decisions you've made in the past, and at your reasons for making those decisions, you'll get a good idea of whether you are motivated primarily by fear, desire, or both. For example, if you've recently bought a house, did you buy it because you were excited about the prospects of living in that house and that neighborhood, or because you were afraid that home prices were rising so fast you'd be priced out of the market?
To harness the power of fear in getting you to take action, think about all the bad things that would happen if you didn't get the job done. Because fear is such a powerful motivational force, inaction is often possible only when you avoid thinking about the negative consequences that would result. To spur yourself into action, use your mind to dwell on those undesirable things that will come about if you fail to take action. We often think of fear as preventing us from doing things, and it certainly can have that effect. Keep in mind, though, that if you frame your fear in the right way, in can be just as powerful an influence for positive action. Basically, fear seeks to avoid that which is undesirable. When you make the connection between negative consequences and lack of action, fear will get you going in a powerful way.
Or perhaps you are more strongly motivated by desire. To utilize the power of desire, think of all the benefits that will come from your taking action. Visualize, clearly and in detail, the positive results of making the effort. Create a powerful desire within yourself to attain those results. Surely you've experienced in the past that when you desire something strongly enough, you'll do whatever it takes to get it. Those people who get a lot of things accomplished have learned to tap in to that driving force by creating and guiding their desires to match their goals. Desire is a great way to get yourself moving. Desire is nothing to be ashamed of -- it's a powerful force that anyone can utilize.
The power of desire is a great reason to have written goals. The more clearly and specifically you can identify the intended results of your action, the more powerful your driving desire will be. Not only do specific, well-articulated goals serve to direct your actions, they also can provide the energy and motivation for those actions. When you vividly visualize the outcome, you're compelled to take the necessary actions.
A change of scenery
Procrastination and inaction are habits that must be broken in order to get things done. These habits are often reinforced by your environment. If the things around you are the same as they've been for a long time, you're likely to continue with the same actions (or lack of actions) that you've adhered to for a long time. To break the cycle, it can help greatly to put yourself in a new environment. This can take many forms. Just cleaning up your desk or workspace can make a big difference. A new lamp, a new arrangement of the furniture, or a new picture on the wall can produce a significant change of environment. Even better, spend time in a completely different place. Take your laptop computer to the public library and do your work there. Take a walk. Make a trip to another town, region or continent. If you can't afford that, just go to the airport and vicariously absorb the energy of faraway places.
When your momentum is negative, interrupt it. Give yourself a change of scenery. It will provide you with a great opportunity to make a fresh start, and to get yourself taking action.
Minimize distracting activities
One very common reason people do not take action is because they're doing something else. Often times, that "something else" is nothing more than a pleasant distraction -- watching TV, eating junk food, aimlessly surfing the Web, or any of a hundred other things that serve mainly to fill time.
An effective strategy for minimizing the influence of distractions is to make yourself fully aware of them and their significance (or lack thereof). Get in the habit of asking yourself, "Why am I doing this?" and "What benefits will it bring me?" Ask that question when you're eating a doughnut. Ask it when you're watching the same "Seinfeld" rerun for the fifth time. Then ask yourself, "What could I be doing that would be even more fulfilling?"
Distractions are distractions only to the extent that you allow them to be. Put your mind to work. Take a close look at the ways you spend your time and energy. You can easily minimize the distractions and put your efforts where they'll truly pay off.
Get yourself in an action-oriented state
When you find it difficult to take action, start with the next best thing -- pretend to yourself that you're taking action. Stop and think about a time when you were effective, when you were disciplined and able to take action. It may have been a long time ago, in your childhood or adolescence perhaps, or it may have been a few weeks ago. In your mind, go back and relive that experience. Pay particular attention to the positive feelings of satisfaction you had and to the positive results that came from your actions. There is a disciplined, action-oriented person somewhere inside of you. Get in intimate contact with that person and experience how great it is to be that person.
Then, do everything you can to imitate the successful, effective you. Sit like you would sit if you were action-oriented and effective. Walk like you would walk if you were taking decisive, effective action. Talk like you would talk. Breathe like you would breathe. Put on the clothes you would wear if you were taking the action you need to take. Experience how positive you would feel by taking action. Pretend intensely enough and you'll find yourself almost completely unable to resist actually doing it.
We've looked at several powerful strategies for getting yourself to take action. Admittedly, it can be difficult to actually do that which you know must be done. But so what? Is it such a bad thing that success takes commitment and effort? If it were easy, of what real value would it be?
You know what needs to be done. And as you've just seen, there are many very effective ways to get yourself to do it. So, what are you waiting for? There's never been a better time than right now to take action.
-- Ralph Marston
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