2 Simple Tools To Get Yourself To Take Action

Last time, I talked about how important it is for us to take consistent actions to move us towards our goals and dreams, and how we're usually not taking consistent action.

I also talked about the key dynamic that we can harness to get ourselves to take consistent action, which is the process of acclimation.

When we get into new environments, go through new experiences, have new relationships, and learn new things, we go through a process. First, there's a phase of discomfort. Then there's assimilation and coping. And finally, it feels natural, like it's just supposed to be this way. This is the process of acclimation.

It's crucial to pay attention to our process of acclimation.

When we notice what it feels like when we take an action and where we feel resistance to taking an action, it gives us clues about how to build our willpower to overcome the resistance we feel to taking action. It helps us get leverage on ourselves so that we can direct ourselves more effectively. So there's the potential for a lot of growth by observing how we acclimate.

But we can't acclimate if we never take the action in the first place.

So I want to offer you a couple of simple tools that will make it much more likely that you will take the actions you need to to move towards your goals and dreams.

The first tool is visualisation.

An interesting quirk of human psychology is that we humans only do something that we have first imagined ourselves doing. This means that if you haven't seen yourself taking a particular action in your mind, you won't go and take that action in reality.

So if you can imagine taking the action, it's going to feel more natural to go and do it in real life.

Here's what you want to do. Find somewhere quiet where you won't be disturbed for a few minutes. Take some deep breaths to get into a relaxed state. Then close your eyes and do a visualisation where you go through each step; preparing to take the action, doing it, pushing through the resistance, and the positive feelings after doing it. Visualise it from a first-person perspective, as if you were experiencing it through your own eyes. Imagine it all going perfectly and in as much detail as possible.

Your subconscious mind can't tell the difference between a vividly imagined experience and a real one. So your subconscious will process an imagined experience and a real one the same way. There have been numerous studies done on this. There was one study done where a group of participants learned to play piano not from doing practice at the piano, but by visualising themselves practicing. I remember another study where the participants visualised themselves working out at the gym, and they increased their strength and muscle mass.

If you do visualisation, this is the mental equivalent of doing bicep curls. You're doing the reps in your mind before you ever do it in the real world.

The second tool is pushing over a domino. This is a metaphor.

There are some extraordinary videos online of people who have set up these really elaborate chains of dominoes that might involve tens of thousands of dominoes and take anywhere from dozens of hours to months to set up. And once all the dominoes have fallen, it reveals a picture or a coloured pattern or a hidden message. These are not just marvels of engineering but works of art. I'd recommend you check out some of these domino videos. I think you'll be inspired by the dedication and the ingenuity of these people.

There are things you can do in your life to make your desired outcome more inevitable. Sometimes there is a metaphorical domino that you can push over, that will set into motion a sequence of events.

My mentor Eben Pagan likes to say that there are two ways you can climb a fence: you can force yourself to climb over it, or you can throw your hat over so you have to climb the fence to go and retrieve your hat.

So you're trying to do one thing that will set off a chain of events that moves you towards your goal. You can do things like making a public commitment, setting a deadline, or making a booking that you have to show up to.

I'll give you a couple of examples of how I've used both visualisation and pushing over a domino to get myself to take action.

A few years ago, I entered a songwriting contest where you had to write and perform an original protest song. At that point, I had never performed any of my original songs, and I hadn't been the frontman in any of my musical projects. So I felt some resistance and nervousness to performing my original song. First of all, I pushed over a domino by submitting the entry form for the contest. That set in motion a chain of events where I would have to write and practice the song so I would be prepared for the contest.

The second thing I did was to visualise the experience vividly. In my mind, I saw it happening exactly the way I wanted it to go. I saw the audience being really engaged and cheering. I felt the feelings of nervousness and excitement, and finally joy. I saw myself singing and playing the song with passion and conviction. And I must have visualised it at least two dozen times.

And guess what? I won second place. That's pretty good for a first-time frontman who hadn't performed any of his original material before. But by using visualisation, it actually wasn't my first time. I had already done it a couple of dozen times in my mind. Think about the difference between how well you do something the first time versus doing it for the twentieth time, or the fiftieth time, or the hundredth time. You're going into your imagination and doing those reps to build that muscle before you have to do it in reality.

Another example. A few years ago, a friend asked me to present a group workshop at her creative retreat. At the time, doing this was out of my comfort zone. But I knew that it would help me move towards my goal of being a coach. So I agreed to do it, knowing that it would force me to come up with the teaching materials for the workshop because there was a deadline, and more importantly it would force me to do public speaking because I had made a public commitment to present. So I had pushed over a domino. I'd thrown my hat over the fence. I also used visualisation to imagine myself delivering the workshop. And it went really well. I had some really positive feedback and I felt very satisfied with what I did.

I used both of these techniques a few weeks ago to help one of my clients to do his first-ever Facebook Live video. He did it, it went well, and he felt really proud of himself.

So these techniques are simple, but they're very powerful.

Remember; you've got to show up and do the work.

If you want to be making consistent progress towards your goal of becoming a full-time musician and making a sustainable living from your music, you've got to take action consistently.

What's something you've been procrastinating on? What's something you know you need to do to move forward, but you feel some resistance or hesitation about doing? It could be to do with your music business or some other goal you've got in your life.

How could you push over a domino to get yourself to take that action? How could you throw your hat over the fence? And then make a plan this week to set aside a few minutes every day where you visualise yourself taking that action.

If you do those things, I think it will really help you start creating the life you want and avoid feeling like you're not getting anywhere.