How You Take Action To Achieve Your Goals

There are three different ways you can take action towards your goal.  First, are those on the sidelines who think about taking action, those that take small action steps, and those that leap right in taking frantic action.  How you take action is an important factor in determining how successful you will be in achieving your goal.

Swimming Pool Example

Consider being at a swimming pool with regards to these three different types of people.  There are those who dip their toes into the water from the sidelines, people who cannon ball to jump right into the water, and others who slowly walk into the pool until they are neck deep in the water.  Any of these approaches can be applied to how you step outside your comfort zone and take action towards your goals in life.

Sidelines

You may be someone who finds yourself on the sidelines.  You’re sitting in the pool deck chair, sunbathing, reading with your sunglasses on, and watching everyone else in the pool.  You might be brave enough to stand up and test the temperature of the water with your hand or foot.  Mentally, you might be methodically planning out the steps you might take if you were to get in the pool.  You get stuck in the planning phase and never take action because it’s not the right time or you have other fears, worries, and doubts that hold you back.  You quickly retreat to the safety of your comfort zone.  You return to your pool chair to observe, never actually getting into the pool to take action towards your goals.

Go Getter

Next, is the go getter who jumps right in.  It doesn’t matter how cold the water is, you are ready to take action and go!  You don’t have much of a plan but you believe you can figure it out as you go.  Yet, this can leave you gasping for air and floundering in the deep end.  You’re splashing about and trying to grab onto anything that can help keep you afloat so that you don’t sink.  You’re easily distracted by shiny objects as you quickly try idea after idea to achieve your goal.  However, you never really give it enough time to see it through before you’re onto the next idea to try and achieve your goal.  It becomes increasingly difficult treading water and you can quickly burn out from trying so many different things that are just not working to achieve your goal.  Jumping right in without a plan doesn’t seem like the best idea anymore.

Planning Small Steps

Then, there is the planner who has a rough idea of what it will take to achieve your goal.  You’re taking tiny steps from the shallow end to the deep end of the pool that allows you to steadily build momentum until you’re able to float on your own.  You’re not feeling overwhelmed because you’ve broken down your goal into small actionable steps.  You’re taking it slow, gathering new information and knowledge with each step you take.  You’re testing the waters and continuing to chart the best course of action.  You’re able to reassess, make adjustments and changes so that you can choose your next best action step to take.  You’re figuring it out and with every step you take, you’re getting closer to achieving your goal.  This method may be slower initially, but you’re more likely to reach success when you take small consistent action steps towards achieving your goal.

You can see how all three of these approaches apply to achieving your goal.  Remaining on the sidelines simply planning how you might achieve your goal does you no good.  You’ll never achieve your goal if you don’t take action.  You’ll only watch as others take action and achieve amazing things.  Next, is just diving in without a clear action plan to achieve your goal.  You’re just making it more difficult on yourself by desperately trying anything to achieve your goal.  Then, there is planner who takes small steps and constantly assesses the next best step to take.  You’re not blindly going after your goals.  You have a loose plan of what you need to do and you collect more data to revise that plan with each action step you take.  How you take action to achieve your goal will determine your success rate.  Start with a plan and then take action from there.  You will figure it out as you go, but don’t go into it blindly.  Set yourself up for success by creating a plan and taking those small consistent actions.