Struggling to Take Action? Your ‘What’ Matters More Than The ‘How’
Photo by Brady Knoll on Unsplash.com
“How do you take action?”
This is a question I often receive from readers.
In fact, on Sunday I was having a chat with a friend and she was telling me how she wants to make a change in her career and focus on her long-term goals but she’s struggling to take action. She even hinted at the idea of starting a blog.
So I asked her: “Why don’t you start?”
To which she replied: “I don’t know—something is holding me back—whether it’s fear, or not knowing where to start or what to do.”
Taking action isn't easy but it’s necessary especially if you want to live an intentional life that is true to you.
There’s often a series of obstacles that stand in our way between where we are and where we want to be. Sometimes it’s procrastination. Sometimes it’s our own self-limiting beliefs. Sometimes it’s our own behaviors. Most of the time, however, it’s the lack of any sense of clarity—we don’t know what it is we want to achieve.
In his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey suggests that the second habit is this:
“Begin with the end in mind.”
The “end” isn’t where you want to be in 10 years’ time—that’s too far out to plan in an era that changes so fast. The “end” is where you want to be this time next year or in two or three years.
When I learned how to sail, the first thing I realized was that sailing aimlessly will get you nowhere. You need to choose a destination to sail to so you can figure out what point of sail to assume. Once you do, you can start tacking with the wind and adjusting your sails so you can head into the direction that you want.
The same principle applies in our life:
If you don’t know where you want to go, then you don’t have a clue what it is you should be doing.
So here’s what we can agree on:
Taking aimless action is as impending as taking no action at all.
Therefore, before we take action, we need a sense of direction. We need a dose of clarity. We need to at least have an idea of what it is we want to accomplish or what it is we are working toward.
Here’s my 3-step system to follow if you struggle with taking action:
Determine what it is you want.
Decide that you will do it.
Do It.
Determine What it is You Want
We need to be moving towards something in life—a goal, a direction, a destination. We need a vision that inspires us, keeps us motivated, and gives us a reason to wake up excited to start our day.
That vision is “the what”—the very thing you want to achieve.
And to determine “the what” you need to answer this question:
“Where do I want to be this time next year? In two years? In three?”
Once you can describe a vision of who you are and what you’re doing, then you can answer this follow-up question:
“What do I need to do to get there?”
My three-year vision is to be a geographically-free and financially-free entrepreneur, writer, and author. So what do I need to do to get there? I need to write, publish, and continue to build my business.
This is how we begin with the end in mind.
Once you determine what it is you want—I want to be a writer, I want to be working in a new industry, or I want to be living in Barcelona—then you can start to reverse engineer and start working your way back to figure out the steps you need to take that would lead you there.
If you’re struggling to figure out what it is you want, here are some questions to help you get started. If you already know what it is you want, then we can move on to the next phase.
Decide That You Will Do It
On my very first day of university, toward the end of the lecture, our business professor made the following request:
“Raise your hand if you want to be a millionaire.”
In a class of 200 people, I raised one of the seven hands to go up.
He then looked at us and said:
“You just made the decision to be a millionaire.”
I never understood the value of such a statement until recently. And I’m not talking about making a million dollars (that’s no longer my goal or intention in life), I’m talking about the importance of a commitment to a decision.
Humans are fickle beings. Our attention span equates that of a goldfish and our inclination to get bored hops faster than a rabbit. It’s frustrating, but it’s true. And that’s one of the reasons we don’t achieve much in life: Our inability to commit to a purpose and pursue it passionately.
Determining what you want is only one-third of the question. Making the decision—the commitment—that you are going to pursue it is another.
Making the decision means writing your goal down on a piece of paper and outlining the following:
What daily actions does this goal require for me to complete?
How much time will it take for me to complete these actions?
When should I block time on my calendar to do them?
What should I be measuring as a sign of progress?
What does success look like to me?
What do I need to give up and let go for this to happen?
This is the level of commitment you need to achieve your goals.
This is what it means to make a decision.
You must be willing to pay the price for it. You must be aware of what you need to give up in order to realize your vision. You must define what success means to you. You must build a system for what needs to be done and show up to it.
A decision is not saying “Okay, I want to do this,” but rather “I have thought it through, I have done my research, I have studied, I have prepared for what could be, and now I am ready to commit to this.”
Do It
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”—Lao Tzu
It’s as simple as that.
Toward the end of that first term, in one of our final lectures with him, the same professor asked us to write down our five-year, one-year, and one-month goals on a piece of paper and jot down the actions we needed to take to achieve them.
He gave us five minutes of silence to think them through and then suddenly, he shattered the stillness of the room with a roar so loud every person in that lecture hall fell back into their seat in absolute horror and shock.
He screamed these four words:
“ARE YOU DOING IT??!!”
Again, as an 18-year-old I didn’t understand the magnitude of his words—I just thought the man was crazy. But today, I cherish them.
Two words to live by:
Do it.
The great pyramids of Giza were built by one stone block at a time. If no one moved those blocks, the pyramids would have ceased to exist. Picasso produced over 13,000 words of art one painting at a time. If Picasso didn’t sit down and start stroking that brush, we wouldn’t have come to know of him.
You've determined what it is you want and decided what it is that must be done, now is the time to go do it.
If you find yourself hesitant because you know where you want to go but you don’t know how to start, understand this:
It’s not about the how; it’s about the what.
When I first started writing I was very clear on what I wanted to do:
Publish weekly articles that share stories and ideas on self-development and creativity.
Grow an online audience and connect with my readers.
Make sure I provide value in what I write about (I don’t want to ramble, I want to share content that inspires growth in myself and others).
As you can see, these guidelines had zero indication of “the how”—they only outlined “the what”.
It was only as I began to write and publish that the how began to reveal itself to me: Build a system for productivity, create on an online website, pitch to publications on Medium, start a newsletter, etc…
Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.—Martin Luther King Jr.
I know where I want to be in a year’s time and I can only see a portion of that staircase. But as I continue to take more steps, the next set of stairs reveals itself to me—I gain more clarity and insight on what steps I need to take next.
What Matters to You
These are some of my favorite words by Rumi:
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
Don’t get bogged down by the details. Own a vision, step boldly into that vision, and as you take that first step to start walking, the way will appear. How you’ll get there is something that will unravel as you begin the journey towards that destination—you’ll figure it out as you go.
“The what” matters more than “the how” so remember this rule:
Be committed to “the what”, be open to “the how”.
All you need to succeed is purpose and faith. Your purpose is “the what” and faith is in the persistent actions that you take. So determine what you want, decide you’re going to do it, and then, do it!