Goals Are Nothing Without Action - 3 Easy Action Boosters

I have been using goal setting techniques to achieve my aims for many years now and I have achieved many things that I would never have thought possible before. However, it has not always been easy and in talking to others, who are just learning these systems, I can see how hard it is for them to make the ideas work for their own aims.

One of the most common difficulties is that learning goal setting itself is very simple. There are a few basic rules and a few basic actions; analyze your desires, figure out the most important ones and work out a plan to get there. That's all easy stuff for everybody. It is at that point in the process that so many people get completely stuck.

This is where fear and procrastination take over and the wheels of change get stuck in the mud of indecision. Here are three simple boosters to get you moving again.

Booster #1 - Slice your tasks smaller. If you have taken the usual approach to goal setting you will have divided your main goal into small chunks, so that each one is manageable in a day.

If you're still having trouble getting started, try taking your first chunk and cutting it even finer. For example if your plan was to build your first website and your next task was to choose and buy a suitable domain name and you still can't get started, then set yourself the task of simply writing down 10 possible names off the top of your head, in the next 15 minutes.

Don't think about anything else, just do it. OK, now check on which ones of those are available. If none are, write down five more. When you have a shortlist of three suitable and available ones, buy your favorite. There, that was easy wasn't it? You managed to take some action and make a decision. Which brings me to...

Booster #2 - Make quick decisions. A lot of what holds people back is the inability to decide. We give ourselves too many choices and our brains just fill up and shut down. If indecision is paralyzing you, try this. Take your list of available domain names and split them down the middle: Let's say you've ended up with four, so you now have two sets of two. Now, simply toss a coin and choose set one or set two.

Throw away the set that lost the toss and throw the coin again to choose between the two in the winning set. Suddenly, you have a decision. But don't be a slave to the coin. If you are disappointed by the winner and would prefer the other one, then choose that. The coin is just a device to make your brain truly focus on what it prefers.

Booster #3 - Tell yourself that when you have completed Task No. 1, just like a robot, you are auto programmed to begin Task No. 2 and work on it for five minutes. Let this become a habit. Every time you finish something, don't sit back and rest; go straight into the next action and focus your mind on it for a short time.

This way, one of two things will happen. Either you will become engrossed and that 5 minutes will become three hours and you'll suddenly find that you have almost finished the next task.

Alternatively, you will work for five minutes and stop, but when you pick up that task again, you will find that your brain has been working on it in the meantime and many of the difficulties have been subconsciously resolved and it will go much smoother.

So, next time, you are struggling to get moving, try these three Action Boosters and you will be amazed at just how productive you can be.

 
  • About

    headshot: David Beroff in St. ThomasDavid Beroff started writing software at the age of 11, and was teaching Computer Science at Rutgers University by the time he was 18. After designing software for two decades, he started his own Internet marketing firm in '95; one of his company's earliest successes was Freedback.com, a free feedback-form service that was later sold to Wondermill.

    Beroff had bought and sold four million voluntary, opt-in email leads generated with properties like LeadFactory and SuperTAF before the business failed in '07. He is the author of the book, Turn Funny Email into CASH!, and is currently developing a new social media site, AboutTh.is.

    He has two grown children, and now lives outside of Scranton with his girlfriend and five cats.

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