Sometimes taking action is not the right choice. I have been thinking about that statement for a while now. Then, tonight it came up again as I was interviewing Des Gray on Mindset. OK, so maybe it is time that I write about it again.
It seems funny for me to say it because I'm continually telling people they need to get into action and out of perfectionism and procrastination. Just do something!
However, I'm reminded that not all action is good action. In fact, last year when I told you about my theme for 2011 of Decisive Productive Action I touched on some of these points too. It is worth rehashing here though, because it is an important point to understand.
#1 I believe taking action is better than not taking action. If you take action you can evaluate and regroup when necessary.
#2 When you take action, consider WHY your are taking action and make sure you are building good habits for your business.
Des relayed a story to illustrate this:
Say you own a business and you have a sales person that continues to come by to try to sell you something you are not interested in. The sales person (let's call him Bill) is not very good at sales, so his supervisor sends him to a motivational seminar to increase his drive.
Bill comes back from his motivational seminar raring to go! He has reaffirmed his goals and is ready to hit the streats hard! He is MOTIVATED. (Des would call this external motivation.)
That sounds good right? Except that we've forgotten one thing, he does not know HOW to sell. So, Bill continues to work his sales route, but now is is driven to take more action than before. Unfortunately, since he does not know how to sell, all you experience is a sales person that will not leave you alone and is now bugging you more than ever.
Bill, is working harder than ever and is experiencing less results!
Hmmm... action in this instance did not work.
This is where taking time to step back and try to get to the root of your issue (in this case Bill not knowing how to sell) and addressing the root cause is critical. Bill had not needed motivational training, he needed sales training. The action was misplaced.
If you find that you are working and working, but you're not getting to where you want to go, maybe you have misplaced action too. Step back and evaluate and then begin moving forward again.
Onward!
To your success!P.S. Have you been listening to our FireUpBiz calls? We started our first week this week. Come on over and join in on the fun! http://www.fireupyourbizenrichyourlife.com
