How do we take action?
Taking action may sound trivial, but this can be very hard.
It’s not an easy thing for most of us to do. You don’t feel like doing it, you have no time for it, you do not know where to start…
Hereunder is what fundamentally matters, and you can apply this to pretty much any action you want to take, be it at home, at your workplace, or with your friends.
Intro to taking action
We are going to discuss several tips for taking action. It may seem like a lot to take in, but you will see, as you put them into practice, that it will get easier and easier to take action, to the point where you will naturally think about them before you take action.
Get ready to discuss outcomes, focus, teaming up with others, options, minimum resources, etc.
Something is preventing me from taking action
Did it happen to you that you need to do something but found an excuse not to get started on it, especially if the action you need to do comes from someone else?
“I don’t have time”, “i will do it next week”, “i am not sure how to do it”, and “i can’t start until he is finished” are some of the most common things preventing us from taking action. Are they preventing us, or are we making this up for not getting started on the action we’ve got to do?
It could happen that we really run into something that prevents us from getting started, but very often, nothing stops us. The only person preventing us from getting started is often ourselves!
Listen to the video below to get even more input on this topic.
A tool to reach an outcome
Actions are simply tools to reach outcomes. You seek a specific outcome and will take one or multiple actions to achieve this outcome. It means that you should see actions as tools. Actions are just tools to help you to reach outcomes.
Clarity of the outcome
Have you ever tried to take action on an outcome (or “goal” or “objective”) that isn’t clear? It’s pretty hard. While taking action, you often realize that you need more clarity about the outcome you are after.
This is a common problem where someone gives you a goal or an objective, but it lacks clarity. Unless you ask further questions to better understand the outcome that the person is after, you will likely waste time taking action toward something unclear.
If you define the outcome you are after, try to be precise. If you aren’t sure, write down the outcome you are after as precisely as you can and refine it as you access new pieces of information that enable you to gain clarity about the outcome.
If the outcome is defined by someone else, you want to ask as many questions as you need to clarify the outcome. It’s essential. Most People don’t dare to ask for clarification of something they don’t understand. Sometimes, they fear not being perceived positively by others or a manager if they ask the question. Well, i would suggest you do not care. The most important is that you clearly understand the outcome. I often repeat out loud the outcome that the person is after. It helps me to validate that my understanding is correct. I may even reformulate the outcome for more clarity.
Minimum resources or “less is more”
Taking action to reach an outcome requires resources in the form of time, money, and effort. Unless you really enjoy using your time, money, and effort, you should be mindful of how much you use to reach the outcome you are after.
You may want to step back a bit before taking action. Take some distance versus the outcome and ask yourself, what’s the simplest action i can do to reach this outcome? You may also pick the brains of your friends or People you know, as they may propose ideas you haven’t thought of.
Look at options
Alright, you want to reach this outcome […]. Now, ask yourself, what are your options? Options are paths that are supposed to lead you to the outcome you are after. Each path contains one or multiple actions.
You will often realize that there are multiple paths to get to the outcome. To test this, ask a classroom of students to reach a given outcome individually. You will be stunned by the path that some students will take.
Some paths will require more resources in time, money, and effort than others. Some will be more risky than others. It’s for you to judge which option is best for you. Also, if one path does not work, you have backup options.
Allocate time
Stay focused
Get feedback
Getting feedback is critical. Feedback from who? From the one you deliver the action for!
Let me use an image. Imagine you rent a car and get inside the vehicle. What will you do? You will adjust your seat and check that the position is optimal versus the command. You act (move the seat) and seek feedback immediately. If your seat remains too far from the wheel, you will adjust it and seek feedback again.
Well, in life, it’s the same. As you take action, you want to receive feedback. Feedback is all the more important if someone else than yourself is the recipient of what you do. You create a report for a colleague. You build a house for your customers.
Getting feedback on what you are doing reduces the risk of misalignment between expectations and what you are doing.
Forget about perfection
Perfection is a belief you have in your head. Most of us don’t even spend the time to wonder where this belief comes from. Following the fundamental tip to “question everything,” you should ask yourself why you try to reach perfection. Often, this belief may come from school or your parents. Some will say it’s a “traditional” way of thinking.
The critical point is that, in most situations, it is pointless to seek perfection.
Why?
Because it is not needed! Where does the requirement to do something perfectly come from? From your brain (belief). From school. From your parents. From social constraints. Most of the time, seeking perfection is not required and even counter-productive. It is often a waste of resources.
Many school systems rate you out of 10 or 20 points or letters—no wonder this belief of perfection is deeply engrained inside your brain and very hard to take out. My friend, i advise you to get rid of it.
It’s about you transitioning your belief from “i need to do it perfectly” to “i just need to do what is necessary” or “What’s the minimum effort required to reach the outcome?”. In the beginning, these new mindsets may be slightly uncomfortable. After some time, you will be amazed by how productive you are and how much time you have saved versus how you used to do things.
Team up
Why don’t you do it as a team?
If you were educated in the Western world, you might be used to an individualistic view of taking action. At school, we are too often rated individually and not as a team. It is no surprise that in life, we also act individually.
There are multiple benefits to doing actions as a team:
Multiple perspectives. Some folks will find creative ways to reach the outcome. It means that you are likely to learn.
Social integration. By teaming up with other People, you create social links. People get to know you, and you get to know them. You get to see how these People work. You also discover their skills.
Speed. You may be able to do some actions faster by yourself than as a group, but doing them as a group is faster and more efficient for many actions. If we are honest with ourselves, often, we do not know how to do the action as a group. That’s why we assume that it’s better to do it alone.
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