Action Is Required
Posted: January 13, 2016
So you have big dreams. You’ve made your New Year’s resolutions. You’ve smartly turned them into SMART goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. What now?
This is where things sometimes begin to falter. You can have a great goal. You can have everything mapped out. You can have your target all lined up. But at some point, you have to take the shot. You have to pull the trigger on it. You have to take action.
Dreams are pretty nebulous. While goals are more concrete, without action they quickly revert back to dreams. Your first action step has the power to launch a project, but nothing will kill it quicker than inaction. Even desire begins to wane, when you don’t take action.
But something special happens inside when you do something, anything, that helps you toward your goal. There’s a certain momentum you begin to get as you keep at it. Pretty soon, you’re well underway.
It’s like pushing a stalled car off the road. At first it doesn’t want to move, but as you put your head down, and dig your feet in, it begins to roll. Little by little, it picks up speed and at some point, it gets a little easier to keep it moving.
Once things are rolling, you really start to think you can do it. You start believing in the process. That gives you more confidence, and keeps you working at it.
This is why it’s important to work hard enough and smart enough to lose a couple pounds early in your weight loss journey. You need that momentum, and you need that certain sense of success and satisfaction that will keep you going. Without a little success, it’s hard to believe you can do it.
But at some point, you’ll be tested. At that time, you’ll have to have a strong commitment too. When things get hard (and they will), your dedication becomes the main thing keeping you going. Your resolve to simply not quit will make all the difference. Later, when you get your mojo back, momentum will pick back up.
So dream big. Be smart about it with some SMART goals. But then you’ve got to pull the trigger: Just get started. Stay started. If you do, 2016 can be a great year for progress!