Part 1 can be found HERE. Part 3 Can be found HERE.
Part II ::: Action
We covered the first variable in your equation for success ::: thoughts. And the third ::: Will.
In this post we will cover the 2nd variable in your equation for success ::: Action.
Deliberate. Consistent. Action.
Many talk about the need to take “massive action”. While this is useful, I disagree. AND I disagree not because that approach is ineffective, but rather because it is harmful to the system ::: it is un-ecological.
Taking massive action can burn one out and then they must stop and take a breather. Then they go into massive action again. And they get burned out. And so it goes, the cycle infinite, ad nauseum. There is a fundamental lack of balance. Over time, this will lead to resistance to projects, significant health issues—a lack of lack of healthy being-ness with families, spouses, children, life partners, and lovers, who are lacking engagement from you—feeling a love deficit.
AND at worst, addictions—be they food or drugs or alcohol or relationships—so that people can detach and become disembodied. So they can stop feeling how bad this approach feels in their body.
While those who advocate this approach are coming from a positive place, to be sure, I have only 1 question ::: “do we want to be advocating an approach that leads to the above pathologies?
Of course not.
This lack of balance and consistency pervades our culture to no good end—long term.
However, there is a more whole-istic [taking your whole system into account with a long term view added as an additional dimension] way of approaching action…
Think of your business—and your action around your business—like an extension of your body. Would you go to the gym for the first time and automatically try to spend 2 hours on the stair master? Of course not. Would you go to the gym for the first time ever and expect to bench press 300 pounds? Of course not. Even if you were actually able, somehow, to physically complete those “goals” you would be so wiped out the following day—and so sore—that you may or may not return.
Business acquisition is the same way. Go easy at first. Pace yourself. Make sure you stretch and prepare. Make sure you go push yourself a little bit. However, go to the gym almost every day.
I cannot count the times I was in action. Consistent. Deliberate. Action. And business came from somewhere completely out of the blue and seemingly entirely unrelated to the activity I was engaged in around business or the leads I was following up on.
Say, returning calls. Or writing an article to demonstrate your competence. Writing a talk that you could give at the local small business association or trade conference, or what have you. Email a resource to a client you had stumbled upon that will be valuable to them given what you know about them and their particular needs—and heck, just calling your clients on a non-business call for 10 or so minutes to see how they are in general.
Consistently. Deliberately. Persistently. Continuously. Ever-expanding-ly.
Not only will your neurology—your nervous system and your egoic and emotional structures—expand to include all of that; to appropriately embrace your experience. To expand your embrace of all that is and is arising. Including your business. Your wealth. Your “successes” and your “failures”. Whatever is arising moment to moment. Even now.
And of course, the “spooky” thing is that often, just having your attention and intentionality on your business produces results often from “out of nowhere”. As if you are applying the basic principles of the Law of Attraction, you will also see opportunities that you would not have noticed before. And opportunities will come to you as you put out the energy into the world.
Whether you succeed or fail is almost irrelevant. I say almost, because we want the general direction to be upwards—the general trend of you meeting or exceeding your self-declared targets to be...up.
However, even more important that tactical success is strategic learning. I say “more important” as the latter will serve the former in ways you can only begin to imagine…even now. I would rather have your attention on the learnings—even when you “succeed” than on whether your are “succeeding” or “failing”
And while most of this article has been focused on the Self, there is another aspect that can be the crux of your success or failure ::: and it is included as an essential aspect of your action. What is this element? It is your skill acquisition and your learning acquisition—your heard earned and well-paid-for lessons in business—in how to inspire others toward a vision.
As important as maintaining deliberate action toward your vision--perhaps even more important--is your ability to inspire a team, a spouse, a business partner to maintain their own deliberate action in service of the ultimate goal or realization.
We will discuss this at length in future writings. For now, McClain, out.
Wishing you Health, Success, and Fulfillment,
Jason The McClain