How to Take Action Every Day: 5 Powerful Habits

How to Take Action Every Day

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”
Leonardo Da Vinci

One of the biggest and most common problems with improving your life or the success you want out of it is that you may not take consistent action over a longer time period.

Now, consistency isn’t the sexiest or most exciting word.

But it is, coupled with time, what will give you real results in your life.

Sticking with the program and doing something consistently – and not just when you feel inspired or something like that – is very, very powerful.

This is something I have struggled with a lot in the past. And on some days I still do.

But over the years I have found a few things that really help me with this.

1. When you’re taking action, focus only on the process.

I use this one, for example, when I do my workouts and when I write. I don’t take responsibility for the results in my mind.

I take responsibility for showing up and doing my workout/the writing. That’s it.

The results come anyway from that consistent action. And this makes it easier for me to take this action because:

  • I know that is all I need to focus on. And so my energy and attention is only focused in one direction and I do a better job.
  • I feel a lot less pressure on myself. And so I’m more relaxed and prone to continue compared to if I stare myself blind on the potential results that never come as quickly as I may want and if I’m on an emotional roller coaster from day to day.

2. Remember why you are taking action.

Find your top priorities and reasons for why you are doing what you are doing.

It could be to provide for your family, to save up for traveling, to get the job you really want or to improve your self-confidence. Or something else.

To not lose track of why you are taking action and to stay focused:

  • Write down your most important reasons. Take a few minutes, sit down with paper and a pen and write down the top 1-3 reasons for why you take action and want to keep doing that in your life right now.
  • Put that note where you can see it every day. Like for example in your workspace or near your bed so that you see it every morning when you wake up.

3. Reminder: you don’t want to hurt yourself.

When you disappoint yourself and don’t think and do as you really deep down want to you hurt yourself by lowering your self-esteem.

Whatever you do during your day sends signals back to yourself about what kind of person you are. Do the right thing like being effective, kind, going to the gym or simply rest and you feel good.

Get lazy, negative or just plain mean and you tend to feel worse after a while.

You don’t get away, there is no escaping yourself. And there is always a price to pay.

4. Take smaller steps on the days when the big ones seem too daunting.

On some days getting started with any of the the most important tasks may seem daunting. And so you start to procrastinate.

When that happens, one thing that has worked for me is to be kind.

To nudge myself forward instead of beating myself up.

So at such times I take:

  • A small step. I may make a deal with myself to just work for 5 minutes on a piece of a bigger and more difficult task.
  • An even smaller step. If that small step feels like too much and I start to procrastinate I make a deal with myself for 1 or 2 minutes of work.

Sometimes that results in a few dents put into a big task, a couple of smaller tasks being completed and many breaks being taken throughout the day.

And sometimes the easy start or restart to the day is all I need to get going again and to have a good and very productive time before the evening arrives.

Either way, I move forward instead of standing still.

5. Celebrate what you did today.

When you appreciate your good work you feel even better about your life and yourself.

And over time taking more action with less inner resistance becomes possible and you associate action with more positive emotions than you may at this time.

So…

  • Take two minutes at the end of the day to think about what you can appreciate about what you did today. Or write down a couple of self-appreciative things in your journal.
  • Have a tasty treat or a bigger celebration.
  • Tell someone how nice something turned out, how you learned a good lesson or how proud you are over something important you did today.

Reward yourself for the things you did right today to strengthen your action taking habit.

And remember to be kind to yourself for the things you may have missed or not gotten done.

No point in trying to beat yourself up. No point in trying to be perfect.

See what you can learn from it and perhaps try another solution tomorrow and see if that works better.

 

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About the Author

Henrik Edberg is the creator of the Positivity Blog and has written weekly articles here since 2006. He has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Gothenburg and has been featured on Lifehacker, HuffPost and Paulo Coelho’s blog. Click here to learn more…

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • merjury

    helpful information… especially on appreciating one’s self . thank you.

    • Exactly! Cool post. Especially rewarding oneself. I feel this often comes short. Great reminder! Thanks.

  • Great article. This really made my day, now I can confidently take action of my daily life. Thanks for sharing.

  • Vinod Madhavan

    Very inspiration for me………
    thanks lot………………….

  • Love the articles,very informative really work for me!! Keep up the good work!!

  • Very good advice. I always celebrate all my wins regardless of whether they are small or big. I will reward myself with treats or sometimes enjoy playing some games after I have done my work. And it feels good. Thanks for sharing. :)

  • TheHappyOne

    Really a soft and kind article. Good one to inspire teenagers or students who put themselves on high/low pedestals in comparison to their peers and suffer both ways. It is also well said in Bhagvad Gita (Lord Krishna’s teachings)…”Do Action, Do not think about results”.
    Keep up the good work Henrik !

  • I love that you encourage baby steps Henrik. Sometimes that is the only way to begin a daunting project. One of my favorite tools is my cell phone timer. It keeps me on task. Thank you for another great post.

  • Dee

    The one that is the most powerful for me is the one that says to celebrate what you have done today. It’s so easy for us to have the habit of focusing on what we didn’t accomplish in a given day.

  • Manish Singh

    Most failures occur to remain motivated everyday because our focus shifts away from process. Your first habit rightly explained that. Thanks for sharing in simpler way.

  • I think your tip #1 was spot-on for me It seems that often, I focus too much on the “result” and not the process. When you really think about it, you learn more from the process….not really the result. It can also be very intimidating when all you’re looking at is the result – it’s like hiking up a mountain. If you look all the way to where you have to get to, the journey looks long and harrowing. If you just focus on taking one step at a time, it seems much easier (and more importantly, much more fun!). Thanks for this awesome post. It definitely gave me the opportunity to examine my own perspective on tackling the process. :)

  • I love this article which u have posted. Its very informative for me. Very good advice. Thanks a lot

  • Tsha

    I loved this article. Thanks a lot.

  • Great tips you have here.
    I always tell myself to focus on the process and I start as small as possible.
    When it is time to write, I will just open up Words and write the title.
    After that, things will just flow and I will just type.
    And like what you mentioned, consistency is crucial if we want to be successful. I’m trying to stay as consistent as possible everyday. :)

  • Mosma Maor

    Enjoyed reading all the positive stuff you have on the blog