Tag: actions

Systems and processes

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.” – James Clear

It doesn’t matter how lofty your goals are if you don’t have systems in place to ensure you reach those goals. The goal gives you a direction to aim, which is a good start, but it does not get you to the finish line. After all, you need to know what you want to accomplish and where you want to go in order to take the right actions to get there. But knowing where you want to go is only part of the equation. It won’t actually get you there without putting together an action plan and then executing that plan. (Knowing and doing are different parts of the process, but both are necessary.)

Make sure that you have systems in place that move you forward every day. Figure out what the next most important action step is and work towards completing it. Once you accomplish that, figure out the next most important action step and repeat the process.

On your way to completing each step, beware of taking actions that can derail or sidetrack you. You want to move toward your goal in as straight of a line as possible, not winding/meandering your way there. Stay laser focused and do not let the shiny objects distract you.

Competing and confidence

Be confident in your ability to compete. You don’t have to win every time. You won’t win every time. But you can always compete…Try your hardest, have a good attitude whether you win or lose, and make sure you learn from your experiences.

If you don’t like losing, keep practicing. Keep competing. Be a student of the game. What worked well before and what didn’t work? How can you implement what worked and reduce what didn’t to get more consistent results? Become an expert in whatever it is you’re trying to do. With competence comes confidence.

Forget perfect

Perfectionism is the killer of dreams. It kills dreams before they even get started because nothing will ever be perfect. If you wait for everything to be perfect to take action, or if you keep tweaking something and decide not to launch it because it’s not perfect, you’ll never end up doing anything.

Instead of waiting for perfect, just take action! Action is almost always better than inaction. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t overthink. Don’t let outside circumstances dictate what you can do. Just do it. You may stumble and fall along the way, but as long as you keep getting up and trying again, you’ll be ahead of where you would have been if you never tried. And who knows, maybe you’ll stumble over something better than you ever expected…

“Keep on going and chances are you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I have never heard of anyone stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles Kettering

Doubts and confidence

“A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.” – Alexandre Dumas

Before you start something, you should at the very least have some sort of hope that you will succeed. If you think it’s possible, you give yourself a chance to achieve it.

Beyond hope though, you should strive to have confidence in yourself. The difference is that when you are hopeful, you’re not necessarily thinking that you are the reason for your success. With hopes and wishes, outside influences are the main reasons for your success or failure. You begin to rely on luck or on other people in order to achieve. But with confidence, while you still may need assistance from others, you understand that you determine your future with your actions.

If you doubt yourself or lack confidence, you almost guarantee that you will not succeed in whatever specific thing you are trying to achieve. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because it will not only show in your actions, but others will pick up on your lack of confidence as well. If you’re selling something, the people whom you are selling to will feel that your lack of confidence is a reflection of how you feel about the product/service you are offering. As a result, they don’t buy from you (I don’t blame them), which then lowers your confidence even more.

Be confident in yourself. If you don’t think that you can do something yet, learn more about it. Read about it. Ask people who are already in that field about best practices and common pitfalls. Eventually though, you have to learn by doing. Once you put enough practice in, you will earn the confidence to succeed. And if you still don’t think you can do it, then you’re probably right. Your mind will find ways as to why you can’t or shouldn’t do it and it will become your truth.

Cutting corners

“How you do one thing is how you do everything.”

If you cut corners in one area of your life, it is much easier to justify cutting corners in other areas as well. Don’t give yourself permission to cheat in anything, no matter how trivial, otherwise it may lead you down a slippery slope to cheat on big things later. Even if you do something that isn’t considered cheating, is it reflecting your best work? Is there a cleaner, better, or more effective way of doing something and you just don’t want to put in the effort to do it correctly?

Practice doing things the “right way.” (Note: there are several correct ways to do things, you have to try to be objective in determining what is the best way to do something.) Don’t give into the temptation of doing what is easy, or if cutting corners when nobody is looking. Because if you do that, eventually it will erode you’re standards in everything you do. Remember, how you do one thing is how you do everything. Choose your actions wisely.