When you think about a new business idea, goal, or opportunity that seeks your highest potential and leads you to a path of success, there is a lot of excitement that will arise. When you are looking at choices, opportunities, and feel like your brain is overloaded with information, it can be very difficult to actually take action.
Especially in today’s day and age we are constantly provided with information in tons of different media outlets and social media platforms. Since there is so much available on the Internet, it can sometimes feel overwhelming and can make you feel like you are incapable of taking the necessary steps in order to get to your goal.
Taking action is extremely important because it provides you with a sense of productivity and achievement that is very rewarding and essential to your satisfaction with life, your overall well-being, and your happiness. Taking action allows you to step out of your comfort zone and finally stop complaining and start doing. This is the best way to realize your full potential and truly become the best version of yourself.
When you have these amazing dreams, ideas, and see different opportunities in life, inaction will be a silent killer. When you see someone else doing what you had one dreamed of, you will feel a sense of regret and will wish you had started earlier.
Inaction makes you feel stagnant and stuck in your environment and hinders your ability to achieve goals. It is important to get out of this negative cycle in order to realize your full capabilities and boost your self-esteem.
There is a specific process that is crucial to achieving your goals and feeling accomplished. It is of course important to think before you act but thinking can only get you so far. There comes a time when you need to just start acting and change things from there. Thinking provide you with the ability to feel prepared, but it can also make you feel hesitant and doubtful when you start playing out worst-case scenarios.
Thinking versus doing is very similar to deciding versus doing. When you put a lot of thought into a goal or an opportunity that you would like to pursue, you are providing yourself with preparation so that you are ready to act. However, making the decision to act and acting upon your ideas are two completely different things.
If you simply decide that you will do it one day, it is not set in stone and you will likely not have much motivation to accomplish it in the future. I’ll keep you in the idea phase and never actually setting specific goals for yourself in order to strategically plan the ways that you will act. It is not all about what you think or plan that gets you to where you want to be, but what you actually do is what defines you.
Even if you hit obstacles along the road that you may not have prepared or planned for, you can think in the moment and get closer to your goals because you have made the decision to act on your plans and get things done. Below are 15 power steps that can enable and motivate you to take action.
15 Power Steps To Take Action
1. Don’t wait for the perfect circumstances
If you are constantly hoping for your circumstances and surroundings to be perfect in order to act, you are likely procrastinating and putting off these goals that you are passionate about. Telling yourself that you will get something done when the circumstances are perfect becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because your circumstances will likely never be perfect.
Waiting for the perfect circumstances keeps these thoughts and goals as an option, rather than a need for taking action. In order to use this power step to your advantage, you need to be honest with yourself and shift your perspective. It is important to understand that many high achieving and successful people did not wait for the perfect moment to act on their goals. They simply understood that there was uncertainty and went for it anyways. This type of courage is crucial for achieving goals and taking action.
2. Stop overthinking
When you overthink about ideas and thoughts, your negative self-talk may step in and fill you with a sense of self-doubt and hesitation. These things can hold you back and prevent you from achieving the things that you’ve always dreamed of. When you realize that you are in fact overthinking and you shift your mindset into goalsetting and strategic planning, you will be much better off and more likely to actually take action on these thoughts.
We all know the importance of getting out of our heads and putting an end to overthinking once and for all. When you take action, you are able to distract her mind and focus on things that will make you much more productive and efficient rather than holding yourself back. When you notice that you are in your head a lot about what could go wrong, it is important to simply start committing and setting specific deadlines for yourself in order to figure out ways to accomplish your goals.
3. Stop making excuses
We are all aware of the importance of letting our excuses go and simply stepping in. It is easy for us to observe another person around us making excuses, but many of us fail to observe the excuses we make for ourselves. In order to be successful and achieve goals, we are the only ones who can be honest with ourselves in order to actually accomplish our biggest goals.
When you realize that you are making excuses, you can shift your perspective and put this effort into much more productive things.
There are so many different excuses that we make when we are afraid to step out of our comfort zone or feel some form of self-doubt. Our negative self-talk steps in and makes up excuses for us that sometimes do not even make sense.
For example, we may say that we do not have time to get something done because of work or that we are too stressed out to put something else on our plate. However, if we analyze our schedule and find gaps, we can organize our time more productively and put it towards our goals.
When you stay committed to your goals and are specific about what you want, you will find that you have time for anything that you are passionate about. Letting go of excuses is one of the best ways to just take action and start working towards your goals. It is important to note that in the long run, excuses only hold us back and will leave us in a place of regret.
4. List your motivations
Writing out your motivations and the different things that inspire you is one of the best and most efficient ways to take action. When you list out everything that you want to accomplish, you will feel more motivated to actually start and get going with achieving your goals. There is a lot of research around the idea of journaling and writing things down in order to put them in action, rather than just keeping them as a possibility in your mind.
No matter what goal you are trying to achieve or what your dreams may be, there will always be tough days or bumps in the road. These obstacles can leave us feeling lazy, unmotivated, and uninspired. When you have this list to go off of and remember, it provides you with motivation that you may be lacking. This list will keep you going because you can always look back on it when things start to get challenging.
One of the best ways to build up resilience within is by starting a motivational list. It holds you accountable and committed when you don’t feel as inspired or energized or on the days that start to get stressful.
A motivational list is sometimes all you need to prevent yourself from giving up. One of the most important parts of the preparation process that you will need before you take action is your motivational list. Write out all of the things that you are doing this goal for and why it is so important to you. Your future self will thank you when things are not always so exciting.
5. Stop being stuck in dreams that never become reality
When you are constantly thinking about things that you would like to accomplish, your dreams, and all of these different goals that are stuck in your mind, you may feel that you are stuck in a negative loop. This feeling of never accomplishing anything and constantly making up dreams will leave you feeling very unsatisfied with life and can even put you in a state of depression.
It is important to realize that although having dreams are good, you should also be thinking about plans that can get you where you want to be in order to actually accomplish these dreams. If you fail to do this, you will likely never advance forward in life or be able to step out of your comfort zone because your self-esteem will be lowered as you feel that you could never accomplish any of your dreams.
When you are setting these inspiring goals for yourself, you will feel motivated and energized and will want to keep going on the path that leads you to success. When dreams come to mind, or inspiring thoughts happen, it is important to jot them down and then follow up with a list of ways that you can actually get to these dreams.
This will keep you accountable and committed and give you something to live for. Your dreams are what set your soul on fire so do not just let them slip away as you stay in a stagnant life.
6. Forget the past, don’t look to the future – focus on the present
One of the most common origins of limiting beliefs is staying stuck in the past or reliving past experiences. These past experiences can trigger fear and hesitation for the future and can keep you stuck in your comfort zone and lower your sense of self-worth. When you are able to let go of the past, you are able to create a new chapter for yourself and transform your mindset in order to feel courageous and worthy. This will also allow you to let go of the self-doubt that may be preventing you from ever taking action.
Forgetting the past requires that you be very honest with yourself and do inner work to analyze past experiences. Some of these may trigger different traumatic experiences that you had, and you may need to seek professional support in order to get through these experiences rather than just brushing them off. You would be surprised by the way that the subconscious mind uses these past experiences to fuel your fears and the way that you can shift your mindset.
When you are brave and learn to let go of these past experiences, you will not feel as hesitant towards your future life and will finally be able to live to your fullest potential. On the other hand, it is important to not look too far ahead into the future and not over analyze potential future situations because this can also be detrimental to your mental health.
Being fearful of uncertain outcomes and being scared about what could happen based on certain decisions you make can also leave you stuck in self-doubt and hesitation and hold you back in many other ways. This causes a sense of anxiety that hinders your ability to perform at your highest potential. We often play out the worst possible scenario or play out many different outcomes of a situation which lowers our productivity even though we are trying to feel prepared.
Instead of feeling stuck trying to control your future, it is important to let life happen and just start taking action. Being fully present in the moment allows you to perform at your most efficient speeds and be extremely productive.
You will find that your brain becomes clearer and you will not be as scared. When your confidence increases, you will work harder and will feel more motivated and committed to taking action. There are many ways that you can work on being present in the moment, while also letting go of past experiences or future expectations.
7. Face and identify your fears
As we discussed in the previous power action step, fears can hold us back in many ways. Sometimes we may not even notice how much of a role fear is playing in our life because it often happens subconsciously and is based off of past experiences that we may not even remember.
One of the most important ways to get out of your head and finally take action is by analyzing everything that you are scared of and learning to transform your mindset around these experiences or situations.
When you are able to confidently identify your fears, you are able to control how reactive you are towards them and how much they influence your decisions and your life as a whole. This requires a lot of honesty within and requires that you practice observing your thoughts rather than allowing them to control your emotions.
Traumatic experiences can keep us in our comfort zones and keep us stagnant in life. When fear gets in the way, we are very quick to make excuses for ourselves and never realize our potential.
However, fear is what fuels resilience and allows us to become our most confident selves. Letting go of the past and fears that arise because of these experiences requires sitting with your thoughts but can be extremely beneficial to nearly every aspect of your life. Doing this can allow you to finally achieve your goals and take action on them.
8. Limit the planning time
As we can all agree, planning before taking action on goals or your dreams is incredibly important. Giving yourself a specific plan allows you to stay committed and hold yourself accountable during challenging times or days that you may feel unmotivated. There are so many different ways to strategically plan, but there comes a time when you need to just stop thinking and planning and start doing and acting.
When you come up with a specific plan, it is important to stop tweaking it or trying to make it perfect and just start taking action. This is because you cannot predict the outcome of each step in the plan and things will inevitably need to be changed along the way. Once you come up with a broad plan that will keep you accountable and prevent you from giving up, you should just get started.
It is important to notice and be honest with yourself about your planning techniques by analyzing whether it is actually helping you get closer to your goals or if it is becoming a form of procrastination. When you are honest about this, you will likely realize that something may be holding you back and that is where you need to do some work and tap in to your mindset.
Over-planning can keep you from living in the moment and can make you too anxious about the future. This can impact your happiness and ability to succeed because you are not putting your goals to work. It can also make you closed-minded and inflexible because you are too set on your ways and within your plans.
When things go wrong or not according to your plan, this may cause you to give up. By sticking to your plan but also allowing things to change and understanding that the outcomes are uncertain, you will be much better off when issues arise and less worried overall.
9. Combat fears by taking action
When we discuss resilience, courage, and bravery, we often just talk about stepping into your fears and not letting your mind get in the way. Our subconscious mind can be very powerful in keeping us in a state of self-doubt, hesitation, or anxiety. Past experiences and traumatic events can hinder our ability to feel excited and optimistic about the future and can hold us back in so many different ways.
Fears can keep us in a state of procrastination and prevent us from ever taking action on our goals and dreams. By staying in your comfort zone, you will never feel truly accomplished, happy, or confident. It is through fear and obstacles that we learn our true capabilities and our self-worth which allow us to prosper and become the best versions of ourselves. In order to take action on your goals, you must combat your fears and be honest with yourself about them.
10. Consider the outcome of failure
When you are hesitant about taking the necessary actions to get you closer to success and achieving your goals, one of the most common thoughts that come to mind is failure and what would happen if things went wrong. This puts us in a negative thinking loop that allows us to over analyze the worst possible scenarios and try to be in control of future uncertain outcomes.
When you ask yourself what the worst thing that could happen is, you should be looking at it from an optimistic and realistic perspective, because putting in hard work and effort will eventually lead to some form of success. When you are too stressed out about the worst thing that can happen, you may never even act, and this is the very thing that keeps people in their comfort zones. Although you can analyze the outcomes as a way as part of your thought process, it should not lead to limiting beliefs and hesitation.
By considering the outcome of failure but not letting it stop you, you will be able to fully take control of your mind and let go of the negative self-talk that constantly hold you back during life’s most defining moments. Next time you are thinking about failure, welcome your thoughts but do not react upon them or allow them to control your emotions.
11. Let go of expectations
Expectations are often a result of anxious thinking and trying to control uncertainty. When you set up all these expectations for yourself and are over analyzing what will happen in the future, you will likely become very disappointed when things do not go your way. When you embrace the uncertainty and look at things from a different perspective, you will be more motivated when different things happen, and you will feel more accepting.
Letting go of expectations allows you to be more open minded and flexible and more solution-oriented, rather than letting bumps in the road prevent you from becoming the best version of yourself. Letting go of expectations can also allow you to just take action and understand that you may not have all of the answers figured out before you begin. This may require rethinking the way that you set goals and the way that you plan for your future, but it will leave you feeling more satisfied and less worried about the way things will play out.
12. Focus only on the Process
Another important way to let go of your expectations and be more present in the moment is to focus only on the process and the tasks that are in front of you. When you are constantly obsessing over the outcomes or rewards of different responsibilities and tasks, your brain will feel foggy and you will not be as productive.
When you focus only on the process, you can have a sense of tunnel vision that makes you extremely efficient and success will flow to you naturally. Rather than trying to figure it all out and control all of the different potential outcomes, you should just trust the process and understand that there will be obstacles along the way. When you accept the fact that you need to just focus on the present moment, you will feel much more motivated to take action and stop over planning.
13. Make taking action a habit
As we are all aware, we are creatures of habit. When you are constantly thinking of these large dreams and goals for yourself but never really deciding to take action on them, you will feel in capable in your sense of self-worth will be lowered. When you make taking action on your goals and staying committed and accountable a priority, you will be on a path towards success.
When you make taking action a habit, you will no longer accept mindless thinking and hopefulness. Rather, you will realize that you are in full control of your life and will be able to take the driver seat in your future.
This will allow you to hold yourself to a higher standard and will make you extremely motivated in your life. You will teach yourself how to hold yourself accountable and set up realistic goals that keep you committed on your path to success and achievement. When taking action becomes a habit, you will finally be able to live to your highest potential.
14. Make taking action a priority
When outcomes seem uncertain and there may be fear that arises around your goals, it is very easy to put them at the bottom of your list and make things like every day work a priority. When you take control of your mind and are able to let go of these fears and hesitation, you can finally make taking action on your goals a priority and strategically plan out your life in order to be successful. Work on prioritizing your action steps in order to put your goals into place and finally act upon them.
15. Do it!
Now that you have read all of the different powerful action steps that you can be taking on a daily basis in order to get out of your head and start doing, it is important to actually use them. Try out each different action step and see what works best for you, because every individual is motivated in different ways.
