In our last session, we talked about the importance of setting reminders for your goals and putting them where you’ll see them on a regular basis. Today, we’re going to learn the eighth step:
“TAKE ACTION EVERY DAY!”
Once you’ve set your goal, do something with it everyday! Why?
I want you to picture your goal as being a small, round stone on the side of a hill. There’s no movement—it’s sitting still. Up to now, there has been no external force acting upon it.
Let’s imagine, that one day there’s a torrential downpour that causes some of the sand or gravel underneath the stone to move. It shifts ever so slightly.
Let’s pretend that on another day a hunter is stalking a deer and nicks the stone with his foot. It moves a little closer to the edge of the slope.
On yet another day, a small bird happens to land upon on the rock. It shifts a little and then it moves. Very slowly at first, gravity starts to pull it down the hill. It begins to pick up steam. As it does, its speed increases. After a few seconds, it’s flying down the hill. It’s going so fast that not much is going to stop it.
When you wrote down your goal on the 3×5 card, you acted as the bird. You nudged it, and it began to move.
We’re dealing with physics here.
Newton’s First Law of Motion states,
“An object at rest stays at rest until acted upon by an outside force. An object in motion stays in motion until acted upon by an outside force.”
Once you’ve set the goal, the daily actions you take are the outside force. It causes MOMEMTUM—the “Big Mo!!!” And that’s what you need. After a little while, it begins to take on a life of it’s own and just keeps moving forward.
So here’s the key: Do something everyday! EVERY DAY!!! I don’t care how small it is, just do something.
One of the most impactful books I ever read was called “The Slight Edge” written by a man named Jeff Olson. It’s a small book. I read it every year just to keep the principles in front of me.
In this book, Jeff answered this question for me: “Why is it that some people make dream after dream come true, while others just continue dreaming and spend their lives building dreams for someone else.”
Then Jeff explained how to take the action, and how much action was necessary. The answers are pleasantly surprising!
I have suggested this book to many of my friends, and without exception, they’ve all told me it had a dramatic effect on their lives.
As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,
“Do the thing, and you shall have the power.”
Everyday, take at least one action on your goal. I don’t care what it is. But I know that this one step will give you the power!
See you next session for the 9th and final step!