There’s an old saying: “You can never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” You must take action.
Realize Your Dream or Put out Fires.n
There’s an old saying: “You can never plow a field by turning it over in your mind.” You must take action.
Now keep in mind, you first have to think about your goal so you can get to that action. You need a vivid reality, a vivid picture of what you want your goal to look like. It’s like teaching a baseball player to hit a ball over the fence. First, the player sees the ball fly over the fence in his mind, and that’s great. That’s a start; but it’s not enough. At some point, the player has to step up to the plate and take a swing!
One of the hardest parts of goal setting is taking action. You know how we say, “Get ready… Set…. Go!” Well, the truth is, most of us tend to say, “Get ready … OK. Let’s get ready… And let’s get ready and let’s get ready.” And that’s it. We over-process things. We over-analyze. We never finish. So there’s never any “Set.” And there’s never any “Go!”
Rather than set the goal, we worry and stress about how to put the action phase together. The truth is, you don’t have to worry about how to put it together. If you let your reticular activating system work and you set your goals properly, your goals will directly turn into actions.
But first, you have to work on your belief system. You need to control your self-talk. You need to affirm what it is that you do want – not what you don’t want. You need to have high expectations. You need to expect great results from your goals. If you’ve always set goals and they’ve never worked, you can just stop this process right now and say, “Hey, I don’t need to do this!” But if you want to change, it takes the discipline and focus to put them into action.
Three Types of Action
There are generally three types of actions relative to goal setting:
1. PRO-Action
2. RE-Action
3. IN-Action
PRO-Action
The first type of action is PRO-action. A PRO-action is when we focus on what we want to have happen. We’re going to take PRO-action, be PRO-active in what we want to do.
RE-Action
The second type of action is RE-action. In other words, we react to something. We react to the situation. If I go to the doctor and she says, “Hey, Jim, if you don’t lose that extra weight, you are going to be very ill.” I can then choose to react and I goal-set to change.
IN-Action
The third type of action is IN-action. We do nothing. It’s much easier to whine and complain and say it’s not our fault. It’s the government’s fault, it’s our parents’ fault, or it’s somebody else. We become a victim and justify all the reasons why we are the way we are. It’s called IN-action. It feels safer to be inactive because all the reasons why we’re not getting any positive results are someone else’s fault.
What Do You Want?
What type of action does your organization take? If you find yourself having to constantly put out fires, chances are you a reactive manager. Always under pressure to meet the numbers and, as a result, you are always on everyone’s back. You keep asking the question: why don’t things change? What is it like where you work?
If you want change in your gross profits, then set specific action-oriented goals. Become proactive and choose the type of business you desire. If you choose to have a great business then you need to set proactive goals that are consistent with that level of success. Proactive people never complain, they simply look for a path around the challenge. What are you like as a leader? Do you focus on the problem or do you figure a way to remove the obstacle and inspire your people to go where they didn’t think they could go?
Or maybe you’re like water taking the path of least resistance and doing nothing. Just sitting and waiting is called in-action. Do you wait for the customer to drive onto your lot? Do you wait for that top salesperson to show up? What are you waiting for? Maybe you’re waiting for me to call you.
The choice is yours. In my book, “Power to Change” I teach you step-by-step how to change your thinking. Get coaching from someone who has wisdom and knows how to succeed. Join a business devekioment group or call me to set a time when we can discuss your dreams and how to make them a reality. Someone helped me, let me help you. You can call me at 702-644-8326 or buy my book “Power to Change” at Amazon.com.
