Why You Need to Stop Thinking and Take Action
Maybe you need to ask for money, drop some annoying weight, leave a destructive relationship, or stop pouring that second glass of wine (every night).
Whatever it is, it’s a bit scary…the first time.
And that’s the weird thing with our wiring. The first time we walk into a gym - especially after a prolonged lapse - it’s scary. What if I look like a fool!? What if I don’t know what to do (hint: pick up heavy things)!? Or - worst of all - what if I’m wearing the wrong thing!?
Somehow you pull up your girly pants, find some old runners, and survive the first visit. Whew! It didn’t look like the YouTube videos you watched while building up your nerve - but you survived.
And then, the next visit (weirdly) seems half as scary as the first. And so on. Stick with it long enough and it might start to feel like a routine you’ve always had.
I was nervous
Recently, I orchestrated a series of evenings to ask for money. We need to raise a lot of money to build new facilities for our local paddle centre and time was running out. After a year of endless meetings with our local government, banks, architects, and builders I was convinced it was time to stress test our plans on the people we most need to write the cheques - our members.
We had commitments from our local City and a local lender, but our members would either take us to the finish line or stop us in our tracks.
So, I argued my case, convinced our small team and email invitations went out.
Now I was nervous.
What if they don’t want the project to go ahead? What if we misread their support? What if we don’t raise enough money?
Nudge the flywheel
When you take any step towards a goal - even a tiny one, like making a list - you give the flywheel of progress a nudge. I wrote about the Spiral and the Flywheel here. It’s a small step, but, to quote the stoic Zeno “…it is truly no small thing.”
When you then take one more small step you give it another nudge. “Every action you take,” author James Clear wrote, “is a vote for the person you want to become.”
When I spoke up at our committee meeting and argued for getting our most loyal members into a room and asking for their financial support (in writing) - I gave the flywheel a nudge. I didn’t know how we would do it, I just knew we had a problem to solve and somebody had to speak up.
The slave-turned philosopher Epictetus wrote, “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.” When we speak our truth - even without knowing the plan - we do something all too rare.
We nudge the flywheel of progress.
Get started
Nothing happens without momentum and only you make that happen.
If you want to change how your body feels, give it a nudge. Drop to the floor and do 10 pushups, flick on YouTube and follow a yoga workout, walk around your block, or sit quietly while the kettle boils.
You can’t measure the results on your Fitbit, but that’s not what counts.
When I had the idea to run my first marathon in over 12 years (of course I had to pick one of the hardest marathons to qualify for) I had no idea how to get started. So I created a small win. I wrote about that here.
When I needed to sell my last business I had no idea where to start, so I phoned a friend who sold his. I wrote about that here.
And when I believed we needed to stress test our paddle centre project I spoke up, even though I didn’t know how we would do it.
A small trick
We are conditioned to think that success in life comes from BIG WINS. Build a unicorn business, win a huge contract, have a postcard vacation, or look like that Instagram personality with the perfect body.
It’s a lottery mentality that forms a sentence starting with ‘If only’, ‘As soon as’, or ‘What if?’ If you buy into that line of thinking, it’s like a filter on reality - a sack of dead weight you pack on your back thinking it’s normal.
Here’s a small trick: don’t think.
“When I get up in the morning I go to the gym,” muscleman and sometime actor Arnold Schwartzenhagar once said. And then he added, “I don’t think about it.”
Your thoughts are either your best friend…or not. Either way, actions always win the battle between motivation and excuses.
Don’t think - take the small action. You’ve got plenty of time to think about it later. Take another small action and before you know it the flywheel is spinning on its own.
And you get to wonder how it all happened.
It started with a nudge
The urgency of our plan meant our gatherings landed on one of the hottest days of a summer heatwave. On the first night, the temperature in the room was over 90 degrees. It felt like the tension in the room brought it up higher.
I bravely worked through my notes - painted a vision of all the wonderful benefits of a big, new shiny centre, the milestones we needed to hit, and the funding hurdle we needed to climb over to make it all happen. It was a bit dry, but everyone was so desperate to escape into the cooler night air few questions were asked.
That night we received over $50,000 in commitments. The commitments on the second night were even bigger and by the third night, we were just shy of $200,000 - far exceeding our wildest expectations.
It all started with a nudge.
The next nudge gets easier
What are you waiting to do?
Whatever it is, your choice is binary: keep waiting or nudge the flywheel.
The good news is your nudge could be so microscopically tiny that it almost seems insignificant. Like pulling together some gear to wear at the gym. Or measuring a 5km walking route from your front door. Or sending a text to a friend saying you’re thinking of them.
And then, click! A little light goes on in the prefrontal that indicates progress made.
Do it once more and the light gets brighter. And the next nudge gets easier.
Not ready to take action? These 3 articles might give you a nudge:
3 daily rituals that will make you rich