8. 3 Steps to Get What You Want – Step 3: Massive Action

Hi, it’s Deirdrea Kiesling with The Success Minded Woman podcast, episode eight. Today we’re going to talk all about taking massive action which means taking action towards your dreams and goals and not giving up until you get your goals. It doesn’t mean working yourself so hard that you get burned out and quit, it means taking those bold, courageous steps over and over again even when it’s hard, even when you’re scared. It means listening to your intuition, and trusting yourself to do what you say you’re going to do.

In this podcast, I briefly mention Brené Brown and her reference to getting in the arena but I didn’t give the quote that that came from. She discovered this quote when she was googling for some comfort when she found herself in a vulnerability hangover after she had done her now-famous first TED Talk about listening to shame and here is the quote by Teddy Roosevelt.

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again. Because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spins himself in a worthy cause, who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

And she actually wrote a book coming from that quote called Daring Greatly and in that book she says, “It’s worse to spend your life on the outside looking in wondering if than it is to try and dare greatly and risk the chance at failure. Dare greatly. Get in the arena and try. And that is what I want for you. My hope and my deepest wish for you all is to dare greatly, to get into the arena, to take action until you get what you’re dreaming of for your life, for your business. Your dreams were meant for you, and the only thing between you and your dreams are to dare greatly, to get in the arena, and take massive action.

Everything you dream of is on the other side of action. So keep listening and we’re going to talk all about how to get into action now.

Hi, I’m Deidrea, wife, and mom to three teenagers, coffee snob, and certified life and business coach. If you’re a high-achieving, goal-oriented woman and you know you were meant for more, then you are a success minded woman and you’re in the right place. I’m here to help you make the money and the impact you’ve been dreaming of, to step into your confidence, create habits and systems to support you, ditch that imposter syndrome, and harness the power of your mind. If you’re ready to create a life and business you love, then let’s go. I’m so glad you’re here.

Today we’re going to talk all about how to take massive action. This is step three of the three step process that we have been talking about over the last few episodes. Step one and how to get what you want is to decide what you want and why you want it. Step two was to make a plan and we talk all about the components that you need to go into your plan. And now it's time to take action. It's time to get out and start taking action towards your goals and dreams. This is the implementation.

When I was in corporate as an implementation consultant and project manager, this was actually my job to help my clients implement software. They purchase the software and it doesn't just start working. It's not like you could just flip a switch. It was a whole process and a methodology very similar to what I'm sharing with you here on the podcast. We had a set process, a set program and then we followed it with our clients and, of course, brought all of our skill set and our expertise and our lessons learned along the way.

And I will tell you, the more and more that I implemented the software the better and the better I got to the point that by the end I was doing basically projects where they said they couldn’t believe it that we actually did it. This last project they had been working on it for over three years and they brought me in to help get it back on track and we did. We went live with the software and they basically were like, “I can’t believe you did it. I can’t believe we did it.” And the reason why I was able to do it is because I knew what to do and I knew how to figure things out. And that's what comes from taking massive action.

You get out there and you learn your lessons and you refine as you go. And so what I want to tell you today about implementation and about taking massive action is that sometimes people think massive action, what does that mean? It means hustling, grinding, working till, I heard someone say, “Working till your eyeballs bleed.” It’s really not that. I’m not saying take massive action to the point that you’re tired, that you’re working too hard, that you’re leading towards burnout. I mean I used to do that kind of massive action and it sucks and I don't want that for you.

The kind of massive action that I'm talking about is just taking big steps that take you in the direction of your goals and dreams. So what makes it massive, why we say massive action is to compare it to passive action. So passive action is when you are doing things but you're not getting a result. It’s kind of like when you're staying in your comfort zone, learning and studying. Massive action is when you are out in there, you are slaying it, you are taking action and you are failing a lot of the time.

So part of massive action is just taking bold, courageous action, being willing to fail and learning as you grow and pivoting and adjusting as you. And that really for me is what massive action is all about, you’re in it. You're in the hard part. You’re in the, as Brené Brown says, you’re in the arena, you are doing it. And when you are out there it is scary and it is hard, but when you believe in yourself and you have a plan and you know that you can figure things out, when you believe in yourself and when you trust yourself you keep going.

And that's really what massive action is all about. It’s about being willing to get out of your comfort zone and know that you're going to feel uncomfortable. And a lot of that discomfort is going to be around having a fear that you’re going to fail or having a fear that you’re going to be feeling embarrassed or whatever those negative feelings are. What makes it massive action is that you're willing to feel those negative emotions, you know it's going to be hard. You know it's going to be scary. You know it's going to be uncomfortable.

You know you're going to feel overwhelm and doubt and confused but you have committed to doing this and you do it anyways. And so the biggest skill that you can have when you are out there taking massive action and being willing to fail, learning and growing. You’re either learning, which is learning from what's not working or you’re winning which you're taking action and getting the result that you want. But either way you're willing to be uncomfortable and you're willing to feel your feelings. So that really is it. That is what massive action is all about.

It’s really just taking action until you get your result and being willing to fail because really the path of success is really just a path of failures. And you can look at any invention, any experiment, any big thing that was created in the world. It first started as an idea and then it came into reality, but before it was fully formed, whatever it was, an airplane, a spaceship, whatever, the light bulb, whatever it was it had a lot of iterations. It had a lot of trial and error, that is the way. That is the path to success.

And so when you are willing to have failure, when you know that there are obstacles and you just have to go through them, you are in massive action. You’re in the arena, you are doing what you need to do to get your results, to get your goal, to create that dream life that you’re envisioning. But passive action is when you are feeling safe and feeling secure and planning. You can get stuck in planning. And the big part of passive action where a lot of people get stuck is gathering more information.

So the biggest way that you know that you’re in massive action versus passive action is massive action you are creating something. There is something that you could look at and say, “Yeah, that worked”, or, “Yeah, that didn’t work.” When you’re in passive action you’re consuming, you are not actually creating a result towards your goal. So passive action is very tricky because it can feel good and it takes time and it takes energy. And so you feel like you are doing something, but passive action is consuming.

It's getting information. It’s studying. It’s reading a book. It’s learning. It’s taking a course. It's watching a YouTube video. And of course, you need to do that. You need to get the program, the foundation that you’re going to follow but at some point you have to stop consuming and start taking action. And how I know for me and I know this is a big one for me, that I always just want to get a little more information. Let me just take one more class. Let me read one more book. Let me listen to one more podcast. Let me just check with one more guru or thought leader and hear what they have to say about it.

But that is very tricky because it will never end, it's never ending, how much information. In this information age you could go on forever gathering more information. So that’s where you have to have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself that you are going to start taking action and be committed to doing that until you get the result that you want.

And the telltale sign of how you are in massive action versus passive action is if you are in passive action. If you have been studying and learning and YouTubing and reading books and taking courses to the point where you could actually teach a course, where you could give a talk, a presentation about the subject, but you haven't actually gotten a result. That my friend is when you are in passive action. And I’m laughing because this is so big for me. I have been in so many areas where I've said, “Yes, I’m going to do this.” And I study so much to the point where I literally could teach a class on it, but no more.

I’ve set my goal, I’ve made my decision and I'm going. And that's one of the things. That’s what I want for you, get out of passive action, make a decision. You’re going to have a lot of ideas about what you want. You’re going to have a lot of goals but as I said in earlier episodes, pick one goal and go all in on that in 90 days. Get into massive action and take action every day and you will learn what is working and what's not working.

And that's really all that it is, is being willing to feel uncomfortable, being willing to get out of your comfort zone, being willing to let go of the passive action, the security that comes from learning and studying and getting into what’s uncomfortable which is in the massive action. Getting out of your comfort zone, your safety net and going for it. I love this idea that I heard, I don’t remember where I heard this from, but the saying of you can't drive a parked car. And you can’t get your goals without action.

So the number one strategy in how to get out of passive action and into massive action is be willing to fail, to collect failures along the way. And worthy fails creates strategic byproducts which is the growth that you have developed within yourself and the skill set that you develop along the way that then you can apply to the next goal and the next goal and the next goal. So taking massive action has a ripple effect of what you're going to get down the road as you have evolved and grown from being willing to fail.

So there are two kinds of failure and one of them is a worthy failure, so a failure that you get when you are in massive action, when you are taking action towards your goal and it's not working. You're failing, you're not getting the result, but you are failing, you’re gathering a worthy fail because you can use it as information. Every failure is how not to do it. I think Thomas Edison said that he tried 10,000 times when he was trying to do the light bulb. I’m going to screw this up, but he said it wasn't a failure, he just knew 10,000 ways that it didn’t work.

And that's what you want, is you want to collect these worthy failures all the way that it won’t work. And when you do something that does work you just do more of that. So over time you’re going to do less of what doesn't work and more of what does work. And the more you keep doing that you're going to find what works best for you and then you just keep doing more of that. So you want to collect these worthy failures because you're either winning or you’re learning, that’s it when you’re in massive action.

When you’re in passive action you are collecting failures, what I call escape fails, which is failing ahead of time, not following through on commitments, not taking action, changing your mind. That’s a big one, when you go after one goal and you get scared and then you think you need more information and you go back into passive action and you’re studying. Then you think, okay, no, I’m going to do this and then you go in a different direction and you can spend years going back and forth, changing your mind and not getting a result. So that's why it's so important to decide and commit and go for it.

And I can’t tell you enough why that is so important, changing your mind and staying confused are some of the biggest escape fails failing ahead of time that you could do. And so be on to yourself when you're doing this. Some other escape fails, could be giving up, lowering your standard, making excuses, justifying inaction. Oh my God, this was a big one for me. Making excuses and justifications for not going after my goals. And I talk all about that in episode one where I share a little bit about my story.

But the thing about these escape fails, they’re sneaky because they seem legitimate. When you're making excuses and justifications for not doing what you should be doing, for not going after your goals, it can seem really true and important and lots of people would agree with you. But that’s where you have to be onto yourself and you have to look deep inside and say, “I know that I'm not doing what I want to do. I'm not going after my goals. And I am saying to other people why I’m not doing it but inside I'm really not doing it because I’m scared and I don't know if it's going to work. And I don't know if I can do it.

And that's why you really need to be onto yourself. And that's why self-awareness through this whole process is the most important thing. Having the skill set and the awareness to know what's going on with you emotionally and in your thoughts so that you connect with yourself and really be honest with yourself about what's going on. So failing ahead of time, making excuses and justification and giving up, those are all escape fails.

And the reason they’re escape fails is because you’re escaping the negative emotions that come with taking massive action and getting out of your comfort zone and being willing to fail. So if you have big goals and dreams and you are not taking action, I’m going to tell you what I tell my clients. You can pay now or you can pay later. You can pay now by getting into action, collecting your fails, being willing to be uncomfortable, being willing to fail and to keep going. So you can pay now and be uncomfortable now and be scared now and do it anyways or you can pay later.

You can pay later when you look back at the missed opportunity, when you look back with regret and disappointment in yourself in what could have been. Because I know that you have a dream and you have goals and they are meant for you. And if you don't do anything now, if you don't pay now and start, you will regret it later. And you might make up excuses or justifications or legitimate reasons why you didn't go for it but I know deep down inside it will always bother you, so do what you can.

Massive action doesn't have to be this huge action that you'd spend hours and hours and hours. It could be one little thing but the massive action is that you commit to it and you don't stop until you get your result. So don't wait until you're ready. I said this I think in my first episode, start before you’re ready and don't quit. That is it.

And that is, I tell you what, that is my formula for success, start before you’re ready because when you are ready you're in passive action consuming and learning and studying. And if you stay there to the point that you think you are ready you are late because you have wasted your time. Instead of going out and taking action and getting into the arena and failing and learning from your failure. So what is it going to be? Do you want to pay now or do you want to pay later? Because even giving up on your dreams there is a cost to that.

So just be honest with yourself of really what's important to you and what are you willing to do to get it? And the other thing around this pay now or pay later is that it is going to cost you. The longer you wait, it is going to cost you. It's going to cost you and if you are trying to build a business, it’s going to cost you in lost revenue. If you’re trying to lose weight, it's going to cost you another year of maybe it's affecting your health and there are some lifestyle changes that you need to do and you don't do them. It’s going to cost you a year’s worth of not having the optimal health that you want and the negative consequences of that.

So there’s a compound effect of not taking action now. You not only don't get the result but you also have lost the time that you’ll never get it back. And the compound effect of that could be huge. Let’s say if you were starting a business and you were going to make $100,000 in revenue. And then you wait two years before you make $100,000 in revenue. You will have lost those two years of revenue because you didn't start but you also will lose the compound effect of that.

So if you had started two years ago you might be at three, four, five, hundred, a million dollars now. But if you’re just starting now you will never get that money back. You will never get that time back. So it's not just what you’re losing today, it’s what you're going to lose in the future if you don't start today. So I hope I’ve convinced you to get out of passive action and into massive action. And it's okay if you need more information, but just really be onto yourself and be honest with yourself.

Am I wanting to get more information because I legitimately have questions that I don't have the answer to or am I using it as an excuse to stay safe and stay in my comfort zone? And only you will know that, but for me when I got really honest with myself about what I was doing I was staying safe and playing small and making very good legitimate reasons why I was doing that. So just be onto yourself and everything's okay. There’s no judgment here at all. I just want to help you live the best life that you can possibly live. Live your dream life.

Have the biggest possible life and be the best version of you that you could possibly be. That's all I want for you. That’s all I want for all of us is just to be our best, to do our best, to just give it all you’ve got because then you know you did your best. When you give it all you’ve got, when you're all in no matter what, it doesn't matter if you win, if you get the result because you did your best. That's all we can do. All we can do is commit to the actions, the results will take care of themselves. We have to show up, commit, believe in ourselves, take action, learn and grow, fail along the way, that's it.

So what I want for you as you embark on your action plan to create your goal is to just notice as you go, are you in passive action or are you in massive action? Are you doing something, studying or learning or reading a book to get more information instead of taking action where you’re not sure what to do or you’re afraid you’re going to fail? Just be onto yourself, it’s totally fine, just be honest with yourself. And that’s why I like the idea of just in time learning. Learn enough to take action and then know that you’re probably going to fail and you’re going to learn from that. But just learn as you go, just in time learning.

I love that way. I do that now. I don't take any courses or training or books or anything right now until it's exactly what I need to know right now to go to the next step in my business. And when I really started constraining to that, is when I really started getting results because you're not overwhelmed with all the studying and learning and courses, and you’re just focused in on one thing. So I really want that for you, to get focused and take massive action. And just know that when you are failing and you’re in action you're learning and failure is part of the journey and failure is the way.

So what I want to end today with is there’s a book, I can’t remember the book. I’ll have to get back to you on that. But there is a book, I can’t believe I can’t remember the name, I’ve read it so many times. But the summary of the book is about this concept of getting out of your comfort zone and taking action. They didn’t call it massive action but basically the concept was that whatever we do and what we really want in our lives and especially as we’re going after our goals is these four feelings, clarity, focus, ease and grace. And that has just been a mantra of mine because it is soothing.

To me it just calms everything down when I get grounded on clarity, focus, ease and grace. And when you can ground yourself into one of those feelings it really does start to settle and if you’re kind of agitated or getting overwhelmed or feeling a sense of urgency, you can just calm yourself down, clarity, focus, ease and grace. And clarity comes from action. You get clear as you take action. So I love the idea of taking action for clarity. Clarity comes from action.

Focus is what you bring to your action. When you are focused and taking one step at a time, one action at a time, focus and constrain. And then the ease of it is just releasing control of the outcome. You just do your best, you show up and you release attachment to the outcome. And then grace comes from your mindset, having grace and compassion and curiosity and love for yourself.

You can bring grace to yourself, you can give grace to yourself in every moment when you're feeling agitated, when you're feeling stressed, when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're feeling doubt, when you're feeling confused. You can give grace to yourself. You can self-talk nicely to yourself. You can give yourself encouragement. And so I love that clarity comes from action, focus and ease comes from planning. And grace comes from your mindset. And when you can have all of those together along with taking massive action you will be unstoppable and you will get your result.

And one thing that I want to share with you that I use as far as this self-talk that I use is that I tell myself when I get scared, when I'm feeling doubt, when I'm feeling overwhelmed, when I'm wondering if I have what it takes, when I'm wondering if this is going to work, when I'm wondering if I'm doing all the right things. I tell myself, this is the hard part. Just reminding myself that this is the hard part. I knew there was going to be a hard part and this is it. I find comfort in that. That just acknowledging, oh yeah, this is the hard part and I will get through it and it will get easier. And there’s probably going to be another hard part.

But for me just naming it and just acknowledging it, that, yeah, this is the hard part. And then I remind myself I can do hard things. And when I remind myself, I’m figuring it out, this is happening, my dreams are meant for me. This is the hard part and I can do hard things and this is how it goes and this is how you can get that ease and grace with yourself. So I know that you have what it takes. I know that you are figuring things out. I know that this is happening for you and your dreams are meant for you.

And I know that your dreams were meant for you. And what you need to do is to get into a massive action, be willing to fail and learn and grow and adjust along the way. So what I’d love for you to do if you’ve been following along with these podcasts of this three step process and you have your plan and you're ready to take action is start taking action. Remember, action creates clarity, so start, you have a plan, you know the direction that you’re going so start taking action.

And then in next week's episode I'm going to talk about creating your personal scorecard for your goals. And a scorecard is really the key to all of it, it pulls all of this together because you have to have a scorecard to track your actions against your results to see what's working and what's not working. And without this piece this actually collecting the data and analyzing the information is how you learn when you’re taking action. It's how you know what's working and what's not working.

So it's really important that you create a score card. So next week I’m going to tell you all about how to create your score card. So I'm so glad that you stayed with me and ready to take massive action and I’ll talk to you all next week. Bye.

To celebrate the launch of the show, I’m going to be giving away five $100 Amazon gift cards. That’s right, five lucky listeners who follow, rate, and review the show. It doesn’t have to be a five star review, but I do hope you love the show. I want your honest feedback so I can create the best show possible that provides tons of value. Visit thedreamacademy.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the podcast and how to enter. I’ll be announcing the winners on the show in episode 10.

Thanks for joining me this week on The Success Minded Woman podcast. If you like what you heard on the podcast and you want to know more, then head on over to thedreamacademy.com where you can sign up for my weekly success and mindset tips to help you create your dream come true life. Talk to you all next week, bye.