How to Get Yourself to Take Action When You Don’t Want To

How to get yourself to take action when you don’t want to 🙈

I coach people on their goals.

It’s what I do literally all day on Zoom.

I eat, sleep, and breathe other people’s goals.

It gives me the most magnificent insight into human potential – but also into human struggles.

One of the most common struggles I see is inaction.

Not taking action at all.

Taking some action, but not enough.

Taking action only when we feel motivated.

Taking action for a few motivated days and then stopping.

Planning to take action but getting distracted.

There are 100 reasons why you might not be taking action. Self-doubt, fear, boredom, distraction, other people’s priorities, disillusion, exhaustion.

But there’s one fool-proof way to guarantee action:

You have to make it utterly non-negotiable.

So you HAVE to. So you’ve got no choice. So you’d never even consider not doing it.

Like picking your kid up from school, or breathing.

When I lived in England, in the winter it was so cold I never wanted to go for a run, so I forced myself into it by making a rule that I wasn’t allowed to shower – unless it was to wash off sweat.

I never, ever, ever took a shower unless I had been for a run.

The longest I went without running (or a shower) was a day.

(I was inspired by the novelist, Victor Hugo, who forced himself to take action by commanding his servant to take away all his clothes each day. Left totally naked in his study, with only paper and pen, he had nothing to do but write.)

Make your most important actions non-negotiable.

Then you’ll guarantee results.

What are your non-negotiable actions?👇

Relentless Effort

533 - The number of days I’ve blogged in a row

365 - The number of days I meditated in a row

1000 – the number of days it took me to get fully booked in my business

49928 – the number of dollars I’ve spent on business training in 2 years

3 – the number of times I had to go back to a job I hated before I made my business work

1378 - the number of people who joined my Facebook group in the last 30 days

21 - the number of 1:1 clients I signed in the last 3 months.

I’m an effective entrepreneur today because my past self cultivated the discipline to do what she said she was going to do, even when it sucked.

There’s no magic pill.

There’s no secret.

There’s only one thing.

Relentless freaking effort.

Decide Your Excuses Ahead of Time

Decide your excuses ahead of time. 

Plan them.

Make exceptions.

Choose when it’s okay for you to not show up for your goal when you had planned to.

• Decide it’s okay the day your sister gives birth to her baby.

• Decide it’s okay when you have a migraine.

• Decide it’s okay when your kid gets sick.

But don’t decide in the moment, just because you don’t feel like it.

Decide ahead of time.

Make a list of valid excuses. Anything can be on the list.

But if it’s not on the list, don’t make an excuse.

A long day, argument with your friends, feeling tired - none of that counts. Unless it was already on the list.

Be the kind of person who can stick to her word. 

It’s how you show love to your future self ❤️

Then & Now

“You’re not scared to start your dream. You’re embarrassed to be seen starting small.” – Brendon Burchard

I still keep my most embarrassing, first-ever videos up on my channel. 

They are the cringiest, most awkward videos on the internet.

But I do it because one day, I want someone to be able to look back at my beginning and feel like they can start exactly where they are too, with just a bedroom and a broken whiteboard.

A lot can change in a year, you guys.

Keep going.

How to Act As If

When you set a goal, you’re auditioning for a role.

The role of future you.

Congratulations, you got the part!

Now your job is to learn the lines.

You have to practice acting like the future you over and over until you get it just right.

How does she talk?

What does she wear?

What time does she get up?

What action does she take?

Step into the staring role of FUTURE YOU.

You will be awkward at first.

Keep practicing.

Until one day, you’ll realise that the entire set around you has come together - and you no longer have to act like the person who can achieve your goal.

You will BE the Future You.

You will achieve the goal because you will be the kind of person who achieves that kind of goal.

Act into your future self, and one day, you will be her.

Network With the People Around You

An unreasonably large number of the world’s best football players all come from the same football club in one small village.

Why?

Because that club has figured out how to turn anyone into a phenomenal player.

It makes me think about our Facebook group of Impossible Girls.

What if in 15 years time, someone traces back all the top leaders and change makers of the world to this one group that was a catalyst for achieving impossible goals?

You could be commenting next to a future prime minister or billionaire philanthropist, right now.

You could become best friends with a future celebrity in this group today.

You could meet the next Oprah in this group, this week.

Think about the kind of goals we all have.

Statistically speaking, some of the people in this group are going to be ridiculously successful in the next few years.

So you might want to make some friends here, because you’re all epic af and headed for greatness.

This group is a networking goldmine.

Just saying ❤️

Why I Share My Biggest Goals On The Internet

I constantly publish my deepest, scariest most impossible goals on the internet for everyone to see.

Even though there’s a chance that I won’t hit them.

But here’s the thing:

The chance that I’ll achieve them actually decreases when I don’t share them.

Because there’s nothing quite as motivating as the thought that the whole world is watching.

Your own mind is the place your dreams will go to die.

Don’t bottle up your dreams.

Tell EVERYONE.

And then walk your talk.

But what if I tell everyone and I fail?

I’ve got a better question:

What if you don’t tell anyone so you never even try?

We are social creatures. We need social motivation.

If I hadn’t seen people like Stefan James or Susi Kauefer or Matheson Brown sharing their goals, I would have missed out on SO much inspiration.

Plus, there’s something epic about hearing someone say they’re going to kick ass, and then actually watching them do it. It feels like you’re part of their journey.

But apparently, it’s not cool to WANT success. It’s only cool to HAVE success.

We’re supposed to act like epic things just happen to us by accident.

“Oh, this old thing?”

“Yeah, just a million followers, what can I say?”

“Aw thanks, it was nothing.”

I say we trash that model, and start a new one.

One where dreams don’t have to be shameful and secretive.

One where we celebrate each other for wanting more than a mediocre life.

Go on, tell the world. Motivate yourself. Inspire someone.

That’s freaking cool.

Having It All vs Doing It All

My entire life, I’ve believed you can have it all.

But a couple of days ago, someone said something absolutely brilliant that changed my whole perspective.

She said “Yes – but you don’t have to DO it all.”

It was one of those struck-by-lightning, world-stops-spinning, a-ha moments for me. 

It makes so much sense.

You can have everything you want.

You just don’t have to make it happen all by yourself.

Ask for help. Outsource. Or just don’t do it.

Maybe we could rebrand the popular #allthethings to #someofthethings?

How would your life change if you let go of the idea that to Have It All, you have to Do It All?

Sleep Is Essential

Yesterday I felt stressed about having lots on my plate.

But today I feel SO much better.

Nothing magic has happened. There’s still the same number of things on my calendar and to-do list.

The only difference is sleep.

And yet whenever there are lots of things on my calendar or to-do list, sleep is the first thing that suffers.

The one thing that makes everything feel better.

Today has been a great reminder: sleep is more important than my to do list.

Stealing Time

I had a client say to me today “Why did it take me a whole week to finish something in one hour?”

SO TRUE.

Procrastination steals more time from us than any task ever will.

Why does it take us a year to read a book that is only 5 hours of reading time?

Why does it take us a whole day to put out the trash that only takes 10 minutes?

Why does it take me an hour to write a 3-minute blog post?

There’s only one solution: Count down 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 – and just do it.