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The Importance of Taking Action
One of the things that most fascinates me is how some of the people that I work with achieve phenomenal success while others only experience marginal results, if any. Perhaps the most fascinating part of it is in assessing which of these people I would have bet would achieve major results and which I would likely bet against seeing that success. Quite often, the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is the difference in what they actually do. In this month’s article, I’m going to switch gears a little bit from my primary focus of asset protection and delve a bit more into some of what I believe to be the keys to success. You see, I’m often fascinated by my interactions with the various people who come into my life and with whom I work on implementing protection plans.
It’s been said that there are two types of people in this world: those that make things happen and those who wait for things to happen. I’ve even heard some refer to another group of people that I would bet you’ve undoubtedly encountered: those who look around and wonder to themselves, “what the heck happened?” If this is truly the case, it’s up to us to determine into which group we would most like to be categorized.
When it comes to getting the best results, those who take action seem to habitually come out on top. The reason for this is that results require action. Rarely does something come to the person who sits back and waits for it to come to them.
The greatest results go to those who go out and take the necessary action to create the results that they want for themselves.
Years ago, I wrote a book entitled, Real Wealth Without Risk in which I laid out a process for getting, growing, and guarding wealth. Through that real wealth process outlined in the book, I took readers through each step and went through a variety of details to enable people to take a look at what is involved in each step. Something that readers should have noticed in going through the book was that each individual step of the plan included an action step.
What should have been further noticed was that each one of those action steps was merely a task designed to prepare for taking the ultimate action of putting a plan in motion. The bottom line that I tried to convey with each and every one of these steps was that the time for action is now. This was the case with my book and it’s the case with whatever it is that you’re dealing with in your personal or business life.
No matter what it is that you want to achieve in this life, it all begins with action. Whether it’s building a life of riches, raising a family, helping the underprivileged, building an online business, creating your marketing system, or anything else for that matter, you must take action to make it happen.
One of the exercises that many motivational speakers and trainers will use for their audiences is to challenge their audience to write out the obituary that they would want to be written about them upon their death. While this may come across as some- what morbid, the point is that we all have things that we would like people to say about us when we die.
We want to have lived a life worthy of comment.
The exercise challenges the person to make out a list of all of the dreams, accomplishments, accolades, achievements, characteristics, etc., that would be described about them in their written or read obituary. The goal of this exercise is that once the list has been put together, the person then has a road map of their goals and the speaker or trainer challenges them to go out and do the things necessary to turn this vision into reality.
This can be a beneficial exercise but it’s merely an exercise if it doesn’t include the secret ingredient to success. What is this “secret ingredient?” Plain and simple, the only way to make this or anything else happen in your personal or business life is to take action. That’s the secret.
You cannot accomplish anything without taking action. If your goal is to start your own company, you have to start your own company. If your goal is to volunteer to serve in a charitable organization you have to volunteer to serve in a charitable organization. If your goal is to be a good friend to other people, you have to be a good friend to other people. Obviously, this could go on and on but you should be able to get the point. It all begins with action.
One lesson that I was taught early on in my life was to “act as would the person that you most want to become.” I suppose some cynics could look at this somewhat disdainfully and refer to it negatively since another variation on this is to “fake it ’til you make it.” They might say that “faking it” is inauthentic and that you should be more true to yourself.
My thought is to forget the cynics. You’ll never change them. The only person that you can ever change is yourself. The only way to do that is to take action.
Start today by acting as would the person that you most want to become.
When faced with any situation, ask yourself, “how would the person that I most want to become handle/approach/react to this?” Once you come up with the answer to that question, do it that way.
Understand that I’m not trying to imply that this is easy. If you’re a habitual procrastinator, you know quite well that the habit of procrastinating can be deeply ingrained and extraordinarily difficult to overcome. It can be overwhelming to take action when you’re stricken by fear. Many people mistakenly believe that the key to doing anything is to get as much information as possible. As a result, they fall into the trap of the “paralysis of analysis.” This occurs when they feel like they just need a little bit more information and then they’ll be ready.
Well, I’m going to let you in on a little secret—you’ll never have all the information to be ready. In many instances, the only way to get the real information that you need is by taking action. That will tell you if you’re on the right track or not. This only results from taking action.
My friends, every single one of us has been blessed with the ability to shape our lives in the way that we want it. The question I have for you is, what are you going to do with this ability? That’s a question that only you can answer. You’ve been given a tremendous opportunity to make your life extraordinary. However, it doesn’t just happen. It’s something that you can only do by taking action. Go out and build the life you want for yourself. Make it happen.
