Getting Yourself to Take Action

If you want to Achieve anything in life it cannot be done unless you take Action.

Have you ever been in a situation where you know you should do something but for some strange reason you just can’t get yourself to do it. Chances are you have. For so many of us who talk and think about the things we need to do to change things in our lives, yet we can’t seem to get ourselves to follow through, this can be a nightmare. We end up feeling frustrated, overwhelmed and angry with ourselves because we know we should take action to achieve our goal but can’t get ourselves to do it. I know what this feels like because it has happened to me many times for many years.

What causes us to behave in this manner? Well, the short version is that everything we do, we do to get away from some perceived pain or to get some perceived pleasure. Consider this situation. You know you should do something but you still don’t do it. This is because deep down you believe that taking action right now would be more painful than putting it off. I remember whenever I had to ask my parents for stuff or tell them some bad news, I would pace up and down in my room ,talking to myself to go do it but after a long time finally deciding to not do it and feeling relieved for the moment that I didn’t do it. I would end up later feeling angry with myself. For lots of us when we put something off for so long we end up reaching that point where suddenly we have to do it now, we have to get it done..Now! It is at that point that you have changed what you linked pain and pleasure to and now not taking action is more painful to you than putting it off.

The reason I do not drink beyond one glass of any alcoholic beverage is the pain I associate with being drunk and losing control of my faculties, things like vomiting, inability to stand or walk, loss of memory, etc., I’ve been drunk in the distant past and woke up the next morning not remembering what happened the night before and that scared me. My pleasure comes from being in control of me, my body and mind. It is terrifying to go through the things I see people who get drunk go through,..Hell No!!

So what happens to those people who can experience great pain but fail to take action to change things, I hear you say? Simple, they just haven’t experienced enough pain yet, they haven’t reached that level of pain to cause them to say “No More, Enough, This must Change Now!!!”, then and only then will they take action. You see some people wait until things get so bad that we have no other option but to take action immediately.

To get ourselves to take action we must associate severe pain to not taking action and extreme pleasure to taking action now.

How to Get Ourselves to Take Action:
• Write down an action that you need to take that you have been putting off- e.g. writing that novel that’s inside you.
• Then ask yourself the following questions and answer them in detail and honestly.
a) Why haven’t I taken action?
b) I the past what pain have I associated to taking this action?
These questions will assist you in understanding that you have associated
greater pain to taking the action than to not taking it.

• Write down all the pleasure you’ve gained in the past by engaging in this negative state. You wanna lose weight then why are you continuing to eat those Brownies. Why, because it gives you instant pleasure and makes you fell good right now.

• Write down what it will cost you if you don’t take action right now. Answer these questions:
a) What will happen if you don’t take action now? So what will happen if you don’t stop eating Brownies, or begin writing that novel, or study for that test? Be honest.
b) What is it going to cost you in the long run? i.e. over the next year and beyond.
c) What will it cost you on an emotional level.
d) How does that make you feel? When answering this question please put some feelings into it.
• Write down all the pleasure you will get by taking action right now. Put together a large list that will irk you on a deeply emotional level.

I know we all won’t always have time to do all of this in certain situation. But the principle remains the same we must associate severe pain to not taking action and extreme pleasure to taking action now.

Make a True Decision

You can never achieve what you want to achieve in life until you have made a True Decision!!!

You see it’s our decisions that determine what actions we take and in the long run who we become. Everything that occurs in our lives, the good and the not so good, all began with a decision, even when we have not made a decision by doing nothing we have made a decision. So your decision not to call a potential employer about a job you are well qualified for and you find yourself still unemployed has determined where you are now in your working life. So your decisions shape your destiny. By making decisions today about how we’re going to live our lives tomorrow and into the future, we can make our lives into what we want it to be.

Now we can make all the decisions we want but if we are not committed to achieving it, then certainly we can’t expect anything to happen can we. Of course not, for your decision would have been mere wishes about things you are just interested in or prefer, hence no conviction, no power.

We should therefore make a True Decision i.e. making a decision and committing yourself to achieving the desired outcome no matter what. Friends, when you Truly Decide to say lose weight, then that’s it, you will no longer indulge in activities that contradict that decision. It’s a done deal! You cut yourself off from any other possibility, no compromises. You just Do It!

Now when making a True Decision you cannot say to yourself and the world “I would like to lose some weight” no, no, no there is no power in that! What you must say is “I am going to lose 10lbs in twenty-one days!” That’s a true decision.
One of the main problems we all have is that we all are afraid of making the wrong decisions. Well guess what, no matter what you do you are going to make wrong decisions in your life. Yes, you will mess up! For sure I have and many times too. No one ever makes all the right decisions so don’t you expect to. The key is to be flexible and look at the resulting consequences, learn from them and use what you have learnt to make better decisions.

So how can we make True Decisions? Here are seven keys that can help you:
• Remember True Decisions set you on the path to achieving your goal.
• Be committed- without it your decision are just wishes
• Take action- once a decision has been make immediately do something towards your goal being realized.
• Make decision often- the more decision you make the better you will become at making them.
• Be flexible if things are not working out don’t be afraid to consider and look at other alternatives. Just don’t get stuck on one route.
• Don’t wait on every bit of information. Too much info can be harmful
• Learn from each decision- when you don’t make the right decision don’t pout or beat yourself up. Find out what you can learn from it.

Try these consistently over the next month or so and see what happens.

Good Luck!!

What Am I to Do With My Life?

What are we here to do?

Why am i here?

These are questions we all ask ourselves at some point in our lives, i know i have ever since i was 12 years old. For me when i was younger my answer was "i'm here to make people smile". As i grew older it became " To make people feel good about themselves and realise that they are better than what they think they are". Each of us have to answer the question for ourselves. As you think about it consider the following:

• Whatever it is, it is in line with the essence of who and what we are
• We have total faith and belief in it
• It is our Life's Vision
• We derive great Joy and Happiness From it
• It is something you would do for free (i know this one is hard to swallow)
  

You see your calling is what gives every aspect of your life meaning, you feel alive. What you will find is that it is something that deep down you know you must do because you"ve always had an interest in it. Your success in life is tied up in your calling. It is going to be a simple and fairly easy route to follow.

Your unhappiness with your life may be tied soley to your denial of what makes you happy. When you decide to follow what make you globally happy (and not what make you happy for the moment) you will find that life becomes easier and things seem to fall into place . You will find that you can handle your problems better as they arise and even plan for some before they arise. You begin to become a better person because of it.

Think about this friends! As you go through life each day, week after week and year after year, what is it that we all really want? Answer, to find something we can be absolutely passionate about. Something that when we arise in the morning we can't wait to get started. Something that no matter how bad things are it always brings us great joy! Someone once said "Do the things you love and love will be in everything you do".

Now one thing about your calling is that is that it may something that you end up growing into. I was 35 years old before i realised and accepted my calling, it's not that i did'nt see it when i was growing up, at different times i did, but for whatever reason i chose to ignore it. So don't be too frightened if you can't decide, just keep searching it will reveal itself to you..the signs are everywhere.

Now sit down my friends and decide what you want to do with your Life!

Welcome to 'Create your Future'

Create Your Future!!
Sounds simple enough doesn't it? Well for most of us it isn't, we live a life of ups and downs where our highs linger behind our lows. Can you remember a time in your life when you believed you could do almost anything or that you could achieve your dreams?

Are you living your dreams now? What happened? If you are like me then you might say something like .."well life got in the way" . Yes at some time or other we all enter the 'Boulevard of broken dreams' and though some of us get of that road too many of us stay on it. When we consider all the dashed hopes, personal despair, and our perceived constant failure at things that occur in life it's no wonder many people lose hope and end up believing that their life is set.

Yet the irony is that we all possess the ability to Create our Future...YES believe it or not we do! The thing is, we don't know what to do to Create our Future, it was never taught in school, and that's what this Blog is about. I'm here to help you Create your Future if i can, think of me like a coach. I'll admit i don't know everything, but hopefully you will learn something from what i write that can help you to Create Your Future! So enjoy.

"The key to realizing a Dream
is to focus not on success, but significance--
and then even the small steps and little victories along your path
will take on greater meaning."
----Oprah Winfrey