Taking Action: 11 Strategies to Help You Get After It!

Cold showers!  Many of you may be familiar with the saying “go take a cold shower!”  The Cambridge dictionary defines the popular saying as follows: “an expression used when someone needs to calm down when something has made them feel sexually excited.”

While I am sure there are some of you use it for those purposes, I have used cold showers for many years for another purpose.  And that purpose is to get primed for taking action. Just like you work out to build your muscles at the gym, I believe you can build your taking action muscle by doing things on a daily basis.

For me, that means jumping into a cold shower first thing every morning!  Part of taking action is building mental toughness and there are few things that can help build mental toughness like a cold shower.  By the way, cold showers also have some other benefits as well.

As I Said in a Previous Post on the Prime Your Pump 99% Rule

For many things in your life, your success boils down to

1% of it is figuring what you have to do (i.e. Googling it if you don’t know how)

AND

99% is mental and in your head!

Meaning, you can figure out HOW to do anything you want to accomplish simply by Googling it.

That will get you 1% of the way there, the other 99% is in your head. It is being self-disciplined enough to take consistent daily action, adjust your approach as you get feedback, and persist until you get where you want to be.

A Prerequisite for Taking Action

You need to know and get clear on what you want and why you want it. If your ‘why’ isn’t strong enough, taking action consistently is going to be hard to do.

For me, my self-discipline and taking action muscles are so strong that I just do it.  Just like working out in the gym, I believe the act of taking action is a muscle that you can build up as well.

While I do not believe there are any ‘silver bullets’ to build the taking action muscle, I do believe there are a bunch of strategies we can employ to help us take action.  Let’s discuss 11 strategies that may help you if you have a hard time taking action.

Taking Action in Your Life – 11 Strategies

(1)  The 5 Second Rule

The 5-second rule is simply this…

…once you have the instinct to act on a goal or objective,

you must count down from 5…5-4-3-2-1 and take action on it by physically moving – otherwise your brain will stop you.

The 5-second rule is what is known as a “metacognition tool”, which is simply a technique that helps you beat your brain to accomplish your objectives.

So, the idea is to use it anytime you want to do something where you know you should do it, but feel scared, uncertain, or overwhelmed.

Just start counting backward 5-4-3-2-1, when you get to 1 – move!

(2)  The 10 10 10 Rule

As we discussed in a previous post, we all have different time perspectives. For those of us who are not as future-oriented, there is a tool called the 10 10 10 rule that can help us see the future consequences of our current actions.

It is simple and works like this, take whatever decision you need to make, and then ask yourself 3 questions:

(1)  How will I feel about it 10 minutes from now?

(2)  How will I feel about it 10 months from now?

(3)  How will I feel about it 10 years from now?

What it does is help us distance ourselves from the initial pain or pleasure we get from making a decision and really helps us see the big picture.

(3)  Using Pain and Pleasure

One way to find the ‘why’ we discussed above is to utilize the concept of pain and pleasure. To do this simply ask yourself:

“What pain will I experience by not taking action?”

“What pleasure will I experience by taking action?”

The key is to answer the questions in a way that associates a lot of pain and a lot of pleasure to taking action.

For example, if someone wants to exercise simply thinking about the pain of having a big belly and the pleasure of looking good in that new dress she just bought, may be what it takes to make her take action.

(4)  Seinfeld’s Productivity Chain

Jerry Seinfeld had a clever trick that he used to hold himself accountable.  At the start of every year, he would buy one of those big calendars and put that bad boy up on a wall where he could see it every day.

Then for every day that he practiced his writing, he would put a big red X on that date to signify he had carried through and avoided the procrastination bug.

The idea was to put a big red X every day he practiced, so he wouldn’t ‘break the chain’ – hence this method has been dubbed ‘Seinfeld’s Productivity Chain’.

(5)  Having an accountability buddy

There are times when having someone to give you a kick in the butt is what it takes on those days you don’t feel like doing something. For example, having a workout partner to keep you accountable for hitting the gym.

(6)  Carrot and stick

If you are someone who is extrinsically motivated, this may work for you.

On the carrot side, perhaps give yourself a reward for reaching a personal goal. For example, buying yourself a new pair of jeans once you get down to a certain weight.

On the stick side, perhaps you may want to punish yourself for not being self-disciplined and taking action. For example, there is a website called stickk.com, where you can create a ‘commitment contract’ where you pick an objective, a penalty, and a charity. If you fail to reach your goal, the charity gets the reward.  For example, if you are a staunch Democrat you can pick the Republican party, and if you are a staunch Republican you can pick the Democratic party.

(7)  Positive self-talk

As we discussed in a recent post, whatever we tell our brain the most it will believe, and whatever we tell it about ourselves, it will create.

So, the idea is to use one or more of the self-talk techniques we discussed to help override your negative self-talk with positive self-talk to get you to take action!

(8)  The Pomodoro technique

We have discussed the Pomodoro technique many times on this blog. Recall the Pomodoro technique has you taking action by alternating 25-minute work sessions with 5-minute rest periods.

(9)  Do something every day that you don’t want to do

Whether it is making your bed, having a cold shower, meditating – whatever. The key is to build that muscle of taking action via self-discipline by taking consistent daily action.

(10)  Implementation Intentions

Whenever you have a hard time taking action on your goals the idea is to summon an automatic process to help you reach your goals. This automatic process is called an implementation intention and it links anticipated critical situations to goal-directed responses.

It takes the form of:

“Whenever situation ‘A’ occurs, I will perform response ‘B’.

For example, let’s say you want to make sure you go to the gym to exercise after work, the implementation intention may look like this:

“When I get in my car after work at 5 pm, I will drive directly to the gym to exercise.”

So, in effect, what implementation intentions do is help us make a personal commitment in the form of an if-then statement.  If situation A happens, I will do ‘B’ which will help me take action toward my goal.

(11)  Habit stacking

The concept of habit stacking is simply choosing an existing habit that you don’t need to be motivated to do and then linking it to the new habit you wish to create.

For example, if you want to make your bed every day simply ‘stack it’ on top of another habit such as brushing your teeth. Right after you brush your teeth, immediately go make your bed.

  Figure out what you want to do.

  It has to be something you have the ability to do.

  Lastly, choose a trigger which is the existing routine or habit in your life be the trigger or cue to do the new behavior.

On That Note…

I hope you learned a few new strategies that you can use to help you when you need to take action in your life.

Who knew cold showers weren’t just for suppressing your sexual urges.

And on that note, I think it is time for me to go take a cold shower!

Until next time, keep taking action and as always…PYMFP!
–Rick

Use It or Lose It

Some of the strategies we discussed for taking action in your life are:

(1)  The 5-second rule
(2)  The 10 10 10 rule
(3)  Using pain and pleasure
(4)  Seinfeld’s productivity chain
(5)  Having an accountability buddy
(6)  Carrot and stick
(7)  Positive self-talk
(8)  The Pomodoro technique
(9)  Do something every day that you don’t want to do
(10)  Implementation intentions
(11)  Habit stacking

When to Use It

Use these strategies in your life whenever you are having a hard time taking action.

What Do You Think?

Do you use any of the strategies we discussed for taking action? Do you have any other go-to strategies to help you take action? Please discuss your thoughts in the comments below!

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