Why Information is Nothing Without Action
If you’ve ever wondered why you struggle to reach your goals, it could be that you aren’t really working toward it properly. Even the best teachers, mentors or coaches, can only help with the groundwork.
The actual journey to achieving anything, actually lies entirely with you. So, let’s look at how your actions can make a difference to your results.
You must have heard the phrase, “Information is Power!”?
Well actually, information only gives you the tools. The power comes from how you use those tools – in other words, your actions.
If you’ve read the post on ‘How to set goals‘, you’ll know the steps necessary to not only set and plan your goals in a way that gives you confidence you can achieve them, but a tried and tested formula that will help make sure you do.
So, you have all the information you need. You’ve done all the planning, followed all the rules and your ready to start your journey.
But, there’s something missing. Time passes and nothing happens, because information is useless, no matter how much of it you’ve got.
All the information available is worth nothing if you don’t take action on it.
Action is your super power
Without ACTION, your goals will never become a reality.
You can spend years learning everything you need to know. But without action, they never will (believe me, I know).
And without regular action, your goals, no matter how powerfully motivating they may be to you right now, mean nothing.
I have a mantra that was passed on to me by Tony Robbins. A man with an uncanny ability to see a person’s problems and a remarkable skill for changing fortunes. That mantra is
‘Never leave sight of a goal without doing something towards it’s achievement.’
Once you’ve set a goal, you must immediately do something that moves you along the path to getting it.
The bigger the step you can take, obviously the better it is. But, any motion toward the goal is a start. If one of your goals, for example was to own your own business, then your initial step towards that goal, could be to research three other companies in the area from the same industry. Or maybe, register your business name.
Whatever it is, just do something. Nothing is more powerful in reaching any goal, than action. As you increase the amount of actions you take, you start to build momentum. Give yourself enough momentum and nothing will stop you!
One last thing to say about taking action generally: try, as with the actual setting of the goal, to be as specific as possible to avoid sending yourself ‘off the rails’.
If your goal was to start a business in 12 weeks, a good action step would be ; ‘check out three helpful resources on the internet today. to help me write my business plan by next Monday‘. A not-so-good one would be, ‘check out some helpful resources on the internet next week.’
The first example is specific. It’s measurable, so you know that you’ve achieved it. The second example is vague, so there’s no measurable outcome. By the time next weeks comes along, the initial drive you had, has all but disappeared.
This means your action steps should also be a goal. And as we’ve already repeated to death, goals should be specific, not vague.
Be specific in your main goal. Be specific in how you will know when you’ve achieved it. Have specific ‘step goals‘ if necessary and achieve them using specific action steps.
Once all that’s done… TAKE SOME ACTION!
Be Brave 🙂
