New Year – Plan w/ No Action Button

This month is devoted to getting things done – strategies to move forward.  It’s a new year and most likely you have plans to “do” many things this year.  

On the personal front you may have plans to exercise, and eat lots of veggies and less fried, salty and sweet foods.  You’re not going to procrastinate, you will watch less TV and you won’t spend endless hours checking email or hanging out on social websites.

You may have plans to start a book, learn a language, pick up a musical instrument or de-clutter your house.

Planning isn’t the problem. It’s the doing that gets us every time.

In business, some companies study all kinds of ways to improve, hire consultants and hold endless seminars, start a new Big Program every year – but don’t actually change anything.  They know what to improve, but don’t actually implement it.

Your first inclination may be to gather more information – on the personal side or on the business side.  However, it’s not knowledge of what to do that’s stopping us. That’s usually fairly simple:

If you want to lose weight, eat fewer calories and move more.  If you want to be healthier, eat more veggies, beans, nuts, seeds, fruits and whole grains.  If you want to be in better shape, exercise.  If you want to have more time, turn off the electronics.  If you want to write a book, write it.  If you want to learn a language or an instrument, practice.

But that’s not what we do. Here’s what we do instead:

We read about various programs.  We talk about it a lot.  We put off doing it and go do something else.  We feel guilty about it, and then push it to the back of our minds.  We finally decide to take action, so we read and talk about it some more.  Businesses do the same.

Reading isn’t doing (unless what you want to do is read more books).  Talking isn’t doing (unless you’re learning to communicate better or become a public speaker).

Doing is doing.

Reasons for not moving forward – there’s no action button.  There are many factors stopping you from creating an action button.  Here are some that apply to me – fear of change or failure – the end game (project, goal, idea) is too big and complicated – too many things to get done (overwhelm) – it’s someone else’s “to do” and I’m really not that interested.

The next blog post will cover some strategies to creating your action buttons.

Do you have a plan with no action buttons?  What do you want to do in 2013?  What will be different at the end of 2013 for you at work? At home?  Leave your thoughts below.

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