My primary school teacher once said something that has stuck with me for life:
She said, “There are three kinds of people in this world: people who make it happen, people who watch what happens, and people who wonder what happened.”
Although this quote is originally attributed to Nicholas Murray Butler, President of Columbia University in New York in the 1930s, my teacher had it right. Being motivated, taking action, and being in control of your decisions is essential for success.
If you think you are more of a watcher or a wonderer, it might be time to transform yourself into a “make it happen” person. Not sure how?
Read on to find out how to make things happen in your life…
Ready To Make It Happen?
Stop Waiting For Perfection
Whether you want to launch a business, take up a new hobby, or move to a new country, there’s really no “perfect” time. Often, we tell ourselves we will make a move when the timing is right, or wait for everything to fall into alignment.
Unfortunately, life seldom works like that. There will always be something not quite lining up. If you are watching and waiting to get started, you will end up missing the opportunity and wondering what happened.
Act NOW
A cake in the mouth is worth two in the box… or something like that. Perhaps 1920’s TV personality Peter Marshall put it better when he said, “Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.”
All your fantastic ideas are worthless until you bring them into reality. It’s too easy to have a brainwave, feel excited about a goal, activity, or idea, then put it on your to-do list for tomorrow. Chances are that it will stay on that “I’ll do it when I get time” list forevermore.
There’s no greater fuel than passion and excitement, so use that initial burst of motivation to get going immediately. You don’t have to complete the entire project right away, but taking one small action towards it now will at least set the wheels in motion.
Quit Overthinking
Another bonus of immediate action is that it bypasses the overthinking part of your brain that will no doubt kick in. When you think about doing things that scare you, you can see that the most difficult part is the waiting, NOT the acting.
Once you are in the moment, doing the thing, those nerves and worries fade away. There’s no time for your mind to kick in with the old, “I’m not good enough,” “I’m going to screw this up,” or “I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Of course, there’s a time and place for strategic planning, research, and preparation, but that’s all part of the doing phase!
Change Is Vital
Remember, if you keep going as you always have, then nothing will ever change. It’s easy to be a watcher, painful to be a wonderer, but powerful to be a person that makes things happen.
Nobody ever started off as an expert. They tried, learned, and acted until they succeeded.
And since we started on a sage quote, let’s wrap up with another one from someone who was most definitely a doer – Mr Leonardo Da Vinci.
“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.”
I’m sure my primary school teacher would have loved that one too!
Ready to make it happen with your marketing? Then I can help you do it. Book a free strategy call with me to get the wheels rolling on your marketing plan for the next year!