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15 Keys To Stepping Up Your Life With Action Steps
Taking action is the key to creating results. We are always taking some action and seeing some results, but what results? Are they the ones we are truly after?
Writing clear action steps is the master key to achieving what you really want instead of exhausting yourself in busyness and later wondering where the days, weeks, months and years of your life went.
So let’s break it down into bite-sized distinctions that will let you start stepping up your life with action steps:
•Be present. Write down actions on the spot. Many great ideas you will have are in short-term memory as you think of them, so capturing them on paper not only gives you comfort but frees up your memory to create other great ideas and your
energy to start taking some of those actions you just wrote down!
•Be bold. Never done something before? Take heart. Venturing down new paths can open up more possibilities than you can currently imagine by just taking that rst step.
•Be the “why guy.” Why do you want to take this action? Motivation requires motive, so take a moment to tap into that
reason to fuel your inner re to the nish line.
•Be speci c. Clarity Leads To Power, so gure out exactly what you want to do and how. For example, if you want to create a new product page for your website, don't just write “Create new XYZ product page on my site.” Actually write the steps you will have to take to achieve it:
1.Write the copy.
2.Proofread the copy.
3.Email Jim, my Web guy, with instructions to create a new page with this copy.
4.View the page to see if I like how it looks. Remember, by the inch it's a cinch and by the yard it's hard.
•Be concise. Exercise the $1,000 Per Word principle even when giving yourself directions. A few powerful words can go a long way.
•Be action-oriented. Start your action step with an action verb to give your mind a running start towards completing the action before you even do it. For example, “Call David from XYZ Corp. to setup sales appointment” is much more powerful than “Sales lead to contact: David from XYZ Corp.”
•Be prepared. Know what resources you will require to complete the action. Proper Prior Planning Prevents Poor Perfor- mance.
•Be mindful. Keep your action lists somewhere you know they will be safe and look at them frequently enough to take the required actions before their deadlines pass. Otherwise, your mind won’t be able to let go of them 100%.
•Be effective. Productivity guru Peter Drucker de nes effectiveness as doing the right things and ef ciency as doing things right. So number your priorities and get to work on your current #1.After all, wouldn't you rather be doing the right things inef ciently instead of doing the wrong things ultra-ef ciently?
•Be ef cient.After guring out the best things to do, gure out the best ways to do them.
•Be a delegator. For each item on your list, ask yourself, “Is there someone else who can do this task just as effectively as I, if not better?” Use Leverage. Find people around you to help you so that you can focus on even higher-value tasks.
•Be accountable. It's said that a goal without a deadline is but a dream. Be realistic in setting a deadline to avoid setting yourself up for failure, but also push yourself to reach.
•Be up-to-date. Whenever you nish a task, take a moment to scratch it off your list. It feels good!
•Be a one-person party. Write an action step to celebrate once you’ve completed other actions. Do the Macarena in your of ce, have a cupcake (organic, of course!), or just pat yourself on the back. Giving yourself kudos gives you momentum to take on the next task.
•Be Hungry For Coaching. The more coaching you ask for, the more valuable action steps you will capture to propel you forward farther and faster than you ever thought.
So take a load off. Start writing action steps, and behold the blissful and productive paths that open up for you amidst what used to be a dense forest of tangled to-dos. And if you’re unsure about anything, just remember that very last key listed.
Happy action stepping