I am absolutely phobic about old food. I’m constantly checking expiration dates, I am not a fan of leftovers, I just don’t like things to sit and get old. Gross. Sad too. All that stuff was once good, healthy, fresh, full of vitality. Energy wasted.
I recently realized I was letting things sit too long in my life. I was letting my dreams get stale. I needed to declare myself! I needed to take action fast!
Step 1: Find some people to tell my plans to. I’ve learned that telling myself I’m going to do something only works sometimes, telling someone else I’m going to do something works better, telling a lot of people I’m going to do something works best.
Step 2: Put an expiration date. I can’t say I’m just going to do something, I have to say I’m going to do something by x time.
Step 3: Get it done. Whether it’s one week, one day, one minute before x, I will finally do that thing, I will get it done. Why? Because that’s what fear does to me, it makes me procrastinate until I have a choice, let people down or do the thing that I’ve been dreading, afraid of, avoiding, whatever. Ninety-nine percent of the time I’ll choose to do that thing rather than let people down.
Today, I sent out a survey to get feedback on a new training idea. I wrote the survey last week. I finalized it several days ago. I revisited it this morning. Why did I finally send it out? I actually told myself I’d have it out last week (clearly, I talked myself out of that one) but I told somebody else it would be out today by 1pm. It feels great to have it done and out there.
Making your dreams real requires action. What action do you need to take? Who are you going to tell? What’s the expiration date?
