Hi friends! Today, I’m incredibly excited to bring you Episode 659 of Primal Potential! Primal Potential is a podcast all about you — your ability to change is not defined by yesterday and doesn’t need to wait until tomorrow. Your transformation is now, no matter what stage you find yourself in life!
I recently received an email from a listener who informed me that she’d learned a lot from the podcast, but she finds it challenging to shift into action gear. This is a common problem for everyone. Often we engage in a pattern of overthinking, planning, strategizing, and worrying rather than a pattern of action. We need to develop a system of specific practices to make effective changes and shift our mindset into taking action!
Today’s episode is all about equipping yourself with the tools to act. We can equip these tools to overcome the barriers in our lives that keep us from accomplishing what we want.
Know What You Want
An essential part of shifting into action is to be specific with what you want. Do not be broad with your goals. Many people have a general sense of what areas in their lives need changing, but they lack the specificity to make practical changes. Having a broad goal is a good starting point, but you need to define your specific steps to get you there.
I found myself wanting to be a more peaceful person and less stressed. That was an excellent starting point, but I needed to determine separate action steps to work towards that broader goal. I decided that I wanted to be a more steady, less reactive person, and so now I work on that through meditation. I started with a broader goal, but I broke it down into more specific, actionable steps to move towards my goal rather than just wishing that I was moving towards it.
It’s entirely acceptable to have many different areas that you want to work on, but you need to define them separately so that you can take actionable steps towards your different goals! If you have both fitness goals and business goals, you’ll need to determine separate practices for reaching those distinct goals. For example, actionable steps for your business goal may involve developing a habit of networking while your fitness goal may include developing a pattern of daily exercise.
When developing these patterns, it’s essential to shift away from the habit of inaction that springs from over-analysis.
Avoid Inaction and Develop Balance
To take action in our lives, we need to step away from the learning, planning, and hoping modes that hinder us from actually doing. We need to develop a habit of action over inaction. You won’t see change if you just learn, plan, and hope to get in better shape — you have to take actionable steps like hitting the gym or changing your dietary habits to get the results that you want!
Something that often overwhelms people when working on the different areas of their lives is worrying about working on every area daily. They get bogged down by the thought of having to do too much, and that daunting feeling keeps them from working towards what they want. Don’t stress about having to work on every area every day. Some days you will have to prioritize one area over another. If you’re spending much of your day working on your relationships, you may not have time to work on your business, and that is completely fine!
It’s essential to strike a balance in the different areas needing improvement in your life, but you will not be able to work on everything daily. Work on the different areas with specific practices, but don’t let yourself succumb to frustration over being unable to put every one of those specific practices into everyday use.
Also, don’t get overwhelmed by thinking that you’re required to do specific practices for hours of your day. It’s okay to spend only a few minutes working on a specific practice or multitasking while doing it. I put my meditation into practice, but some days I may only meditate for a few minutes or while I’m doing something else. I sometimes meditate while I’m in the shower or when I’m trying to fall asleep at night. A specific practice does not need to consume much of your day to be effective.
Be the Best Version of Yourself Every Day
A practice that I teach in my 12 Weeks of Transformation program is the identity journal. We utilize questions to direct us into what specific actions we need to take in our lives. We use the challenges that we face on a weekly basis and turn those challenges into opportunities to develop patterns and engage in beneficial practices. We ask ourselves how we can take daily action to work towards our goals. For example, if your goal is to grow your business, you might ask yourself, “How can I grow my network today?” Ask yourself specific, actionable questions that you can today to overcome the challenges in your life.
If a challenge that you’re facing is losing weight, a specific practice that you may need to implement is healthy eating. You might use your identity journal to ask, “How can I eat healthy today?” You continue asking yourself that question daily so that you can develop consistency in that specific practice and develop a healthy eating pattern.
We focus on winning every day and striving to be the best version of ourselves. An essential part of being that best version of yourself is not carrying your past self with you. It’s okay if you weren’t the best version of yourself yesterday — just focus on today. Don’t let your unhealthy patterns from last year determine how you’re going to be this year. Focus on what you CAN do rather than what you can’t do. You’re never going to be able to change your previous self, so focus on being the best version right now rather than beat yourself up about who you’ve been.
To become a person who engages in patterns of consistent action towards their goals, you need to approach every day with fresh enthusiasm in getting things done. Leave behind yesterday, and focus on being the best you today. Ask yourself, “What can I do today?” and “Who can I be today?” Don’t waste your attention on what you can’t do.
Developing a SYSTEM
I recently heard a helpful acronym for shifting into action gear called SYSTEM — “Save Your Self Time, Energy, and Money.” We must develop systems in every area of our lives that we want to improve.
If you find yourself struggling in a particular area, the chances are that you don’t have a proper system in place. You may be struggling with house cleaning or developing healthy eating habits because you lack the organizational system to break down what you need to do into specific, actionable patterns. For example, a common system is the evening routine. Often people use their evenings to lay out their clothes and make lunches to save themselves time, energy, and money the next day.
A system that I’ve developed for myself is focusing on a different task every day of the week. On Mondays, I record webinars, coaching audios, and focus on other work that involves my 12 Weeks of Transformation program. Tuesdays, I record podcasts, and I write on Wednesdays. I structure my days like this because then I don’t have to waste my time and energy with the question, “What do I need to get done today?” I have the pattern of different tasks on different days so that I can entirely focus my attention on the daily task at hand. This system enables me to get everything done related to Primal Potential in a time-effective way.
We need to develop systems in different areas of our lives to take on the challenges and tasks that we face in a manageable way. The 12 Weeks of Transformation is a great system because we take on the different challenges in our lives through the identity journalling, daily coaching audios, and weekly coaching webinars. We develop patterns of implementing specific practices to grow in the different areas of our lives.
Seek Help From Others
A valuable method of developing patterns of action is to surround yourself with other achievers. When you’re part of a community that also wants to grow, you have others holding you accountable and inspiring you to continue working on yourself.
This idea of communal growth is what formed my Masters Club. People didn’t want to leave the community of action and growth after finishing my 12 Weeks of Transformation, so we developed a community of achievers even though we had the tools to change independently. You don’t necessarily need other people to help you change your patterns, but it’s extremely beneficial if you’re having difficulty.
Another way in which people can develop a mindset of action is by getting a coach. Coaches are essential for those moments in which we feel overwhelmed or unmotivated to continue working on ourselves. I utilize an incredibly helpful coach who has helped guide me to where I am today. Our conversations make my steps to further success so much clearer. I’m able to effectively direct my attention to what actions I need to take through our edifying conversations.
Not everyone wants a coach to help them make changes — and that’s completely fine! — but many need that additional outside assistance to guide them on their journey to developing the mindset of action. This is why so many have informed me that they benefited from the 12 Weeks of Transformation program.
Only recently, someone told me that they joined the program because they didn’t trust themselves to make the changes on their own — and that’s completely understandable! Sometimes we need that additional help to push us towards who we want to become.
Write a Letter to Your Future Self
Finally, I recommend that you write a letter to future yourself 90 days from now about what you want to achieve within that time. You can write about the different ways that you’ve grown and the healthy habits that you’ve created and the consistency that you’ve upheld. I wrote a letter to myself about how I’ve done a great job of becoming a calmer person because that is what I’m going to achieve within those 90 days. I wrote down who I want to be in 90 days, and now I’m going to do it!
In my 12 Weeks of Transformation program, I’m having everyone send me their letters to help them become that person they’re writing to in their message!
I encourage you to get on the waitlist for our next 12 Weeks of Transformation! If you value structure, guidance, accountability, and coaching, then this program is for you! It is all about you and getting you to overcome what’s holding you back. The program consists of a more personal and structured approach to beat day-to-day obstacles and realize your full potential! I’ve talked to so many people who have gone through the program and said that it helped them become a better parent or spouse and that it made them feel more confident and happier. I want that for all you, friends! If you think this may be right for you, don’t hesitate to check out the 12 Weeks of Transformation!
Join NowDuring these trying times, I also recommend that you sign up for our daily mindset upgrades. I send out daily texts of encouragement to help you develop a pattern of action.
If you want to connect on social media, follow me on Instagram (@Elizabethbenton) and Facebook (@Primalpotentialpodcast)!
Friends, I hope this episode inspires you to seize the opportunity to make changes in your life. Now is your time to develop good habits and take active steps towards success!
Elizabeth Benton
IN TODAY’S SHOW YOU WILL LEARN:
- The most common barriers that prevent people from taking action, and the simple steps you can take to overcome them
- One of the biggest impacts having a coach has on your life, and how my own recently reminded me of this
- The 6 Steps you need to take to become a person who not only comes up with a great plan, but then executes on this each and every time
- The huge (yet underrated) role “specificity” plays in this 6 Step Process, and the steps you can take to become more specific with your actions
- The single biggest aspect of “balance” that most people overlook, but arguably plays the largest role in achieving balance in your life
- How most people compare themselves to who they used to be, and how this holds you back and prevents you from acting on today
- The role SYSTEMS play in all this, and how you don’t need to be good at creating them to implement them into your life
- How I recently challenged myself to write an important letter, and the massive impact it’s already had on me, my work and my mindset
TODAY’S RESOURCES:
- Subscribe to the Primal Potential Podcast
- Connect with me on Instagram and Facebook
- Join the 12 Weeks to Transformation Program
- Watch The ‘3 New Rules For Success’ Webinar