I often get struck by an uncomfortable feeling that I am losing my grip of things. This is perhaps a consequence of the fact that I always have a number of responsibilities that occupy my mind at any given moment. I have found that the only way to get rid of this negative feeling is to get up and take action. It is by tackling an obstacle or obligation, no matter how challenging, that we are empowered by it, instead of overwhelmed by it. The peace and ease of being in control is something that is achieved by doing.
“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.”
– Leonardo Da Vinci
But taking action can be difficult and hard. And so it’s easy to wind up in Procrastinationland a lot. How can you break out of such behaviour and develop a behaviour of taking more action?
Here are 9 Tips you will hopefully find useful.
1. Trust in yourself to take action.
So often we are immobilized by our own self doubt. Thoughts about how I might not be good enough are the elixir of doubt and a person transfixed by doubt is about as useful as a thorn in the foot.
The thing many of is fail to realise however is that we can choose to assume that we will get things right, instead of envisioning how we will get things wrong. So often it is only in the doing of something that we actually come to recognise our own capacity. We would never have this magical realisation however if we allow our distrust of ourselves to prevent us from taking the step into the void which is necessary in order to discover our own ability.
2. Trust the universe.
Just as it is essential to trust yourself, it is also essential to trust the universe. In order to be decisive in taking action we very often have to assume that, even though things look a bit dicey, everything will ultimately work out in the end. Even if you think that your pants will fall down and the audience will laugh at you and you will be disgraced, nevertheless trust that you will ultimately be okay, and step onto that stage.
We must understand that it very often requires courage to be decisive and take action. Courage is very hard to do if you think that things are always going to work out for the worse. Drop this conviction! Just blindly assume that things will be okay and they probably will be. Anyway the worrier is not as good at keeping himself safe as he might assume.
3. Be a “Yes-man”
Here I do not mean just agree with everything that anybody says. Of course, you should stay sincere to your own understanding. What I mean by being a “yes-man” is that you should be a person whose base response to a proposal for action is “Yes!” We regret the stupid things we didnt do much more than we regret the stupid things we did do.
It is possible to deliberately say yes as a matter of principle. “Should we run butt naked down the highway?” “Yes!… Wait… What?” It is much easier to go ahead and do something if you have already committed to it. Commit to things before you have thought about it too much then figure the rest out as you go. If nothing else this will lead to an exceptionally interesting life. As my father says, throw yourself into the deep end then worry about learning to swim.
There is however just one proviso to being a yes-man. Say no to drugs and don’t do crime!!
4. Learn to love a challenge
People that have accomplished the most in their lives are the people who relish a challenge. If you relish a challenge you will very easily step up and take action. If we are deliberate about it, we can find even the most strenuous challenges wonderfully enjoyable. There is something about being perched on a fine edge between catastrophe and success which gives genuine satisfaction.
The best way to enjoy the experience of being close to the precipice of failure is to remind yourself that this is actually good for you. The heightened tension in our being which comes about when we are put to the test is the crucible which tempers us and makes us grow. You wont get big muscles at the gym if you don’t embrace the burn. Enjoy that feeling of being under real pressure because you know that this is where your growth is located.
5. Live the moment
It is generally very easy to be decisive and take action in the moment. It is when we get caught up in worries about the future and concerns about the past that we become immobilized. Snapping into the moment will help you immensely to just go and do without emotional baggage and negative thoughts getting in the way.
Also, acting well is ultimately a matter of practical judgment. Practical judgment is the ability to recognise in any given situation what the appropriate thing to do is. This is only possible if you are actually living in the moment. So, by snapping back into the moment. not only will you be more decisive, but chances are you will also be much more effective when you do take action.
One simple and effective technique for snapping back into the moment is to focus on your breathing. Take control of your breathing for a couple of minutes and make it steady and deep. This will bring a level of quitness to your thoughts and you will be more attentive to the moment and more aware of what is going on. Here is a beautiful story which illustrates the importance of bringing your mind back to the present. Living the moment is also essential in good behaviour.
6. Lighten up and move on
Have you ever experienced a person who is always heavy? I don’t mean heavy here in the sense of weighing a lot, I mean heavy in the sense of making a big deal out of everything. If you have then you will know that being like that makes it more difficult to take things on.
We often make mountains out of mole hills. When we do this things become too big, too difficult and too scary and we end up choosing not to act. When you lighten up you drop the baggage and you can focus on getting started on doing what you need to do.
7. Choose to do
We spend a lot of time worrying about all the things we have to do. The thing we don’t realise however is that we don’t actually have to do anything. Everything we do we actually choose to do. It is of course better for us if we do take care of our responsibilities. This does not mean that we should be framing them to ourselves as obligations. Even those things which we appear to have no choice about, we can choose to do them instead of doing them just because we have to.
The advantage of this is that we are always more committed to our own decisions than we are to some external imposition. Thinking about things like this removes the “should’s” and “need to’s” and replaces them with “want to’s”. It is much easier to take action and be decisive with things you actually you want to do.
8. Break things up into small goals
It is easy to get overwhelmed by the prospect of something if we view it as some big thing that is really hard to do. In actual fact everything we do is just the product of lots of little steps, each of which are easy to accomplish.
You will make things much less daunting and much more achievable if break them up into little steps. Creating a simple and not too long to do list is a great way of breaking things up and making them manageable.
9. Get excited
There is nothing worse than doing something with a heavy heart. There is absolutely no harm in getting excited once you have made a decision. Embrace your decision and enjoy it. Once the decision has been made forget the other possibilities, pursue your choice like a kid in a candy store. This is the path you chose and you have every reason to be excited about its possibilities.
Oh yes, and of course, something you do with excitement and positivity has a much greater chance of succeeding and realising in exciting ways.
Comments
3 responses to “How to Take Action and be Decisive: 9 Tips”
Well written and helpful.
Thank you.
I am consistently surprised at how often people forget to ” STOP! DROP! and ROLL!” when the heat is on. Naturally the failure to do so leads to elementary errors which, of course, fuel the fire.
These “9 tips” can help one to keep their head in the game, instead of running around with their hair on fire. More importantly it will assist them in getting involved enough to get there hair on fire in the first place.
Thank you Khalil, I hope you are well!