I was recently coaching a couple of my business clients when something struck me. Sometimes, we need to stop planning, stop procrastinating and take action.
One of the clients I was with had been planning a project for months. The plan sounded great. All the preparation had been done and their purpose was clear, but they weren’t making progress. After an hour of talking it through, I encouraged them to just pick up the phone and start talking to the people he needed to make the project happen.
I sat with him while he made the calls and progressed those conversations. It was all that he’d needed: two weeks later, the project is in progress and has grown fantastically.
I had a similar experience with my own coach. Last October, we were having one of our regular calls. We were discussing my Big Goal Workshops and I was procrastinating hard, making excuses for not going ahead and getting them in the diary. Like any good coach, she asked the right questions to understand what was holding me back from simply taking action. After roughly 20 minutes, she said ‘stop, stop – you know what to do, you have loads of motivation to do it, you just need to take action.’ She then asked me to commit to what I would do in the following 24 hours.
The following day, the first event was booked, registration form set up, invites issued, and the first booking had come in! I’d been procrastinating and planning for months, and then within 24 hours it had become real. That first event, back in January, was a real success – and I’ve got three more events in the diary, with more on the way.
As both of the above examples show, when:
we have developed our Purpose
we are clear on our internal and external reasons why a goal is important
we have done specific and thorough Preparation
we have developed, detailed and chunked down a Plan
– the only thing holding us back is getting on with it.
So, what Big Goal or project have you been thinking about for a while and not done yet? What’s stopping you? Why not go for it? Why not take action now or Pledge to get things moving in the next 24 hours.
My challenge to you this week is to pick up a project or goal you’ve been procrastinating about and take action.
Good luck,
Neil
You might recognise some of the Ps from my 7P Formula for achieving any Big Goal: Purpose, Preparation, Plan, Pledge, Perception, Pain and Persistence. Come along to my next Big Goal Workshops to find out how to apply the theory to conquering your own Big Goals:
More about Big Goal Workshops >
