Here, at last, is an article dedicated to taking action! I’ve been talking about the importance of taking action on this blog for so long, I thought I’d dedicate an article to it!

To tackle the subject of taking action, I’ve chosen to write an article to… Get you to take action! I’ve listed the 5 main behaviors that prevent you from taking action. The 5 false excuses that make you give up on the projects you have in mind.

And of course, for every bad behavior, a solution! Do you want to combat your false beliefs and bring out the best in yourself? Follow the guide…

BEHAVIOR #1: I DON’T HAVE TIME
How many times have you heard someone tell you they just don’t have the time? Worse, how many times have you convinced yourself that you don’t have enough time to start a new project?

This behavior is typical and prevents you from fulfilling your dreams! Taken to extremes, it could even cause you to miss out on your life…

If you’re a victim of this syndrome (and you’re not alone!), follow this advice…

THE STOPWATCH TECHNIQUE!
Buy a stopwatch or use the one on your cell phone. For one week, time every moment you spend not being productive. Of course, it’s up to you to decide which activities are “unproductive”.

For example, here’s a short list I use (not exhaustive):

Watching television (excluding movies, I’m a cinephile) ;
Facebook;
Navigating from link to link on YouTube ;
Any “automatic” activity you do without paying attention. The most common being going on Facebook or checking your e-mail, but I’m sure you have others…

When you turn on your computer, for example, what are your first reflexes? Are they necessary? When you get home in the evening, what’s the first thing you do? What are your automatic rituals?
What are your automatic rituals?

Once you’ve made this list, time all these activities, then record the times on a sheet of paper.

How much time did you lose after one week? How many hours a day does that represent?

What if you decided to put this time to good use?

You need to be convinced that time is only a perception. We live in a system where time flows in the same way for everyone and… We all have time! I read a blog post a while back about someone who had developed a blog on the Internet while working 70 hours a week on the side… A perfect example of effective time management!

So how many hours a day are you wasting?

BEHAVIOR #2: IT’S TOO COMPLICATED FOR ME!
After the lack-of-time excuse, I often hear people say “it’s too complicated for me”!

Before you’ve even tried…

Let’s take the example of creating a blog or website. Put yourself in the role of guinea pig:

You’ve had a personal project in mind for a long time on a subject you’re passionate about. Choose anything you like: puzzles, sewing, horse-riding, maths and so on. Something that suits you! And then, in the age of the Internet, you come up with the idea of creating a website, a blog like the one you’re currently working on, for example. Whether you want to share your passion with your friends or turn it into a professional activity, it’s up to you.

What’s the first idea that comes to mind?

If you said to yourself “it’s too complicated for me!” or “I’ll never be able to do it, I’m hopeless at computers” then… You’re a victim of this false belief, this limiting thought (again, like many other people…).

DIVIDE AND CONQUER!
All “problems”, no matter how big, can be divided into sub-problems and sub-tasks. These tasks are known as atomic tasks. They are finite in time, achievable and measurable. You just need to have a good organizational method and stick to it.

Let’s take the example of building a blog. Here’s a first idea of a task list when starting from scratch:

Do some research on the Internet to see if there are any sites dedicated to blog creation (there are lots of them!);
Make a list of the features you want to implement and check that they are feasible;
Compare the different offers on the market for hosting a website;
Identify how much it’s going to cost me per month / per year ;
etc.

I actually drew up this list when I started this blog. It may come as a surprise to you, but after a bit of research, you’ll learn that a blog takes about five minutes to create, that it costs… 0 euros and that annual hosting costs come to about… 30 euros a year! All of a sudden, what seemed insurmountable a moment ago becomes clearly conceivable!

For any of your projects, always have the same attitude: don’t stop at your first idea and say to yourself “that’s too complicated for me! Break your problem down into sub-problems, do some research, and if it is indeed too complicated, you need to be able to say why objectively.

And, believe me, thanks to all the information we have access to today with the Internet, nothing is inaccessible! That’s pretty good news!

BEHAVIOR #3: I’LL NEVER MAKE IT!
In the same vein as “it’s too complicated”, there are those who say “I’ll never manage it anyway” or “I’ll mess it up”.

Here’s what I say to someone who says that: “Are you psychic?

This behavior is directly linked to the fear of failure!

How can I combat this problem?

ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION
Which do I prefer? To take a chance and try to realize this project (this challenge, this trip, this experience, etc.) or to say to myself every day: “and if I had tried, what would have happened?

I don’t know about you, but for me the answer is clear: I try! Of course, as intelligently as possible and weighing up the pros and cons, but I don’t want to regret anything for the world!

BEHAVIOR #4: I’LL DO IT TOMORROW
Always putting things off until tomorrow… A well-known and long-identified behavior! What’s it called? Procrastination!

I think we’ve all been victims of it in our lives. That feeling that things you’ve been meaning to do for a long time just aren’t getting done. Selling your car, moving house, taking guitar lessons. Even far less time-consuming activities like tidying up that cupboard, doing your tax return or filing those papers (yes, those, right on the hall dresser!). In short, whether the tasks are complex or very simple, we can have this annoying tendency to always put everything off until tomorrow…

INCORPORATE A SIMPLE TRICK INTO YOUR LIFE…
Here’s an easy-to-implement tip you can incorporate into your everyday life:

If a task takes less than five minutes… Do it right away!

It sounds simple enough, but you’ll quickly realize how much time this trick will save you.

BEHAVIOR #5: I HAVEN’T PLANNED FOR EVERYTHING YET
Here’s the last behavior that can prevent you from taking action: perfectionism!

I was a perfectionist for a long time, so much so that before I started my blog, I wanted to have written 6 months’ worth of posts! By writing one article a week, that’s 24 articles.

I wanted to test myself and see if I could do it before publishing anything! It’s a good thing I didn’t listen to myself! If I had listened to myself, my blog would only have been online for 1 month…

In short, it would have been quite a mistake!

HOW TO OVERCOME PERFECTIONISM?
To overcome perfectionism, you have to admit once and for all that no matter what you do, it will never be perfect! Nobody’s perfect, your work isn’t perfect, and there will always be people to criticize you (whether maliciously or intelligently).

Instead of striving for perfection, embrace continuous improvement:

I’ve got an idea;
I think about it and draw up an action plan;
I take action and implement the action plan;
I analyze the feedback;
I adjust, refine, redirect and improve.

TAKE ACTION!
What’s next? You’ve read this article and you’re about to leave this page but what about what you’ve read? Are you going to put it into practice? As I often say, the time you spend reading books or blog articles is time wasted if you never take action.

So if you recognize yourself in one of the 5 behaviors and my solution suits you… Take action!