I want to live my life with typos. You might think that’s an odd thing for a writer to say, but it’s true. Typos tell me that I’m going after it – whatever “it” is – voraciously. Typos, or any other imperfection on our creative work, are a sign that we are putting ourselves out there. If you wait for everything to be perfect, you will never take any action on putting yourself out there. Typos represent action.

Action is the one thing that holds most people back from achieving their dreams. We often know what is wrong with us, we know that we have a problem getting things completed, but we don’t have the solution to change what has become so natural for us. Often we even know what we need to do, but we don’t do it. We put it off to “someday,” but “someday” simply doesn’t exist. “Someday” never gets done. If you want to make a positive change in your life, eliminate “someday” from your vocabulary and decide to be an action-taker.

The benefits of being an action-taker are tremendous:

• People who take action are smarter than those who don’t. According to Napoleon Hill, action-takers exhibit the highest level of intelligence
• Action is linked to higher levels of confidence. The more action you take, the better you will feel about yourself. The better you feel about yourself, the more action you will take, and the more you will get accomplished. The more you accomplish, the more confident you will feel about yourself, about your capabilities, about your mental fortitude and about your potential.
• Those who take action make life happen for them, they don’t wait for life to happen. Action gives us the ability to sculpt our future. Leonardo Da Vinci wrote, “It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
• The act of taking action breaks the cycle of perfectionism. Perfectionism is a fancy cover up for fear. Author Steven Pressfield believes that action not only breaks our internal resistance mechanisms of fear, but it also reveals to us just how important whatever it is we are pursuing actually is. He wrote, “the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that the enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul.”

 

I used to fall back on the excuse of being a perfectionist. But perfectionism is crap. It’s nothing more than an excuse for not taking action. Sneaky, perfectionism seems like a good thing, but it’s not. It keeps us from living life. It tells us that we must earn approval, acceptance and affirmation, and none of that is true.

The worst typo of my life happened when I published my first book. The first edition of the book was saturated with typos. It was mortifying, but possibly one of the best things that could have ever happened to me. I shared the complete typo story on this week’s podcast episode #67. If you haven’t listened to the show yet, you can download it at this iTunes link for free.

 

SO, HOW DO YOU TAKE MORE ACTION?

 

Most people get 95% of the way to taking action.  Here’s a list of the 11 steps to action that will get you to actually get the ball rolling.

 

Action Step #1: Decide to start taking more action.

Taking action starts as a decision before it becomes a habit. Make it your mission today to realign your self-perception and decide to be someone who takes more action in your life.

 

Action Step #2: Create a plan.

Pick just one thing that you want to take action on to get started.  Taking on too many things at one time will spread your focus too thin.   Pick one goal and then create a short plan to start working towards that goal.  Your plan could include a start date, a goal end date, signing up for a course, etc.

 

Action Step #3: Make a daily plan.

The key to following through on action is to keep your momentum going on a daily basis.  You can keep your momentum up by picking just three things every day to have as a goal towards your plan.

 

Action Step #4: Know that small steps count.

Not only do your small steps count, but they are actually what you should be celebrating.  Action is taken in small, baby steps, not giant leaps.  Give yourself credit for the small, seemingly unimportant action steps you are taking.  Small steps can have a tremendous compound effect over time.

 

Action Step #5: Start.

Yes, it’s that simple.  Just start.  You don’t have to know your entire plan, or which direction to even go, you just have to start.  This is the step most people never get to, usually out of fear of the unknown or fear that the first step might be in the wrong direction.  None of that matters, what matters is that you put one foot forward and start anyways.

 

Action Step #6: Be accountable to yourself.

Make a deal with yourself that you will follow through with your goal.  Set up a weekly reward or affirmation to commend yourself on a week of action.  Write your goal and plan out and visit it daily to keep yourself focused and accountable.  Accountability helps us remember that what we are doing and working towards really does matter.

 

Action Step #7:  Be accountable to others.

By involving someone who cares about you in your journey you are upping the chance that you will follow through completely.  Get others involved.  This will help you feel motivated and encouraged through the ups and downs that come with working towards any goal.

 

Action Step #8: Remember, you don’t have to have all the answers.

In fact, you shouldn’t have all the answers.  All you need to know is that you are willing to keep putting one foot in front of the other, which is always “step one.”   Don’t waste your time worrying about “step five” or “step eleven,” you don’t need to know what those steps involve yet, you just need to worry about the step in front of you.

 

Action Step #9: Know that it’s not how you feel; it’s about what you do.

Our emotions can deceive us and convince us out of doing what we should be doing.  Don’t worry about how you “feel,” because how you feel isn’t important.  What is important is what you actually do.  If you are doing anything that you care about, you will experience nerves, anxiety, and fear, but feel the fear and do it anyway.

 

Action Step #10: Remember that action builds confidence.

Once you have started taking action, action taking will become much easier.  Like anything, the more you do it, the easier it will become. Eventually you will form a habit and taking action will be natural for you.  Likewise, the more action you take, the more confident you will feel. The more confident you feel, the more action you will take.  It is a beautiful cycle.

 

Action Step #11: Action is a habit.

Habits are tough to establish, but you can create a habit around anything.  Know that you have the mental fortitude and the courage to form an action habit and then just keep at it until it really becomes a habit.

 

Action is how we live out who we are. You can’t be who you are until you act out who you are. Taking action is an inherent component necessary to being the best you possible. The key to taking action is to have a willingness to make mistakes along the way. Embrace the typos – the physical and metaphorical ones – in your life. It’s our insecurity that holds us back from having the courage to take action, and it’s time to kick our insecurity to the curb once and for all.

In honor of this week’s theme – that is, action – I am offering a 48-hour special offer with my Insecurity Detox. If you haven’t yet heard of the Insecurity Detox, it’s a 7-day mind/body cleanse that is guaranteed to help you kick your insecurity to the curb and to start taking action on what really matters to you in life.

The Insecurity Detox covers:

• How 90% of how you feel about yourself has nothing to do with how you feel (and everything to do with how you think)
• The morning routine that has been proven to set your day up for success
• How if you can spare just 15 minutes per day, you can triple your daily confidence and thereby triple the action you take on your goals
• The truth about the power of your thoughts (and which thoughts you absolutely must stop thinking!)
• The sneaky tricks used by your brain that keep you from feeling great
• What you should eat to help boost your confidence
• And more!

 

I am celebrating everyone who takes action by gifting them the Get More Series (see more info below on the series), a four-set CD set valued at $97. All you have to do is sign up for your Insecurity Detox and I’ll send you an instant download of your CD Set. This offer ends on Sunday, July 27^th at 12:00pm EST.

Here’s what you’ll get with the Get More Series:

(1). Get More Fitness Results – A coaching session sharing my best personal training tips for you to put into action right way.

(2). Get More Accomplished – A coaching session with strategy on how to really get everything accomplished that you want to in a day without burning yourself out.

(3). Get More Happiness – A coaching session on the essential thought patterns you must establish to see life with the right lenses and ultimately to get more happiness out of your everyday life.

(4). Get More Confidence –A coaching session that summarizes all of the components that contribute to confidence, from the inside out, this session will leave you feeling empowered and ready to conquer anything.

 

Confidently yours,

Trish

PS, that link to get the special offer is: https://trishblackwell.leadpages.net/insecuritydetox-97freebie/