How to take massive action – with minimum effort!

Taking any kind of significant action – for the procrastinators, the ditherers, the easily distracted and the ‘avoiders’ among us (probably accounting for about 90% of the population!) – can sadly end up as one of our great needs that doesn’t get met.

And that not exactly painless need to act can linger over a potentially interminable period – until either circumstance become so intolerable that you are forced to take action…or you are able to totally accept things the way they are.

Whatever your need to take action is – whether to get out of your current (dull/stressful/underpaid?) job and search for new horizons; make changes to your personal or home life; successfully reboot your not quite healthy enough lifestyle; acquire a new qualification or skill you would really like to have; travel the world … here are 3 simple things you can do to activate the changes you want – and get yourself on the road to a ‘new, improved’ reality.

(By the way: as a serial procrastinator myself, I have deliberately kept this list small and to the point – so as not to overwhelm any of the ‘action adverse’ among you, and essentially really drive the point home that massive action can require what seems like minimum effort – just so long as it’s applied with reasonable consistency).

1. Decide on what you want to achieve – then focus on the PROCESS rather than the end result.

Ever felt so overwhelmed by achieving a goal that you’re put off sticking with it? Every bit of successfully achieved ‘massive action’ is made up of small steps to get there. Kickstart the process of your own massive action by focusing on the first small step. And stick with it by then focusing on the next small step, then the next. Don’t worry about the end result! By focusing one step at a time you will gradually build a momentum and (therefore) self-belief that success can happen!

2. Make a regular commitment to minimal time.

Now, this may sound bizarre but – especially on the days when you feel like anything but taking massive action - just commit to spending a maximum of 10 minutes on the current step you are on. At the end of those 10 minutes, you can give yourself permission to stop (although in past experience getting through the ‘10 minute pain threshold’ often leads to many more minutes, or even, dare I say hours, more willingly spent on the task! )

3. Be nice to yourself and celebrate how far you have come.

Only you will know how hard it has been to get yourself on the road to massive action – and how much you have achieved by staying on that road, however, slow the journey may seem at times. Celebrate every step of the way that you take, every small milestone you pass. By rewarding yourself and setting aside time where you allow yourself to feel good, you are breaking your journey up into a number of enjoyable stops on the way (after all very few people would try to cross a continent without regular rest and relaxation built into the trip!) And what initially was feared as a long seemingly impossible trudge to the end result, could very possibly be one of the most productive and rewarding times of your life…