The Key to Success? Courageous, Daring Action!
Action is all that matters
Action is all that matters.
When you act, it raises your self-esteem and performance and creates a cycle of success. People motivate themselves, and what motivates is action.
The very act of moving into action creates success.
Action also helps your thinking – it allows you to clarify your thinking and be wise with your actions.
When you take action you expose obstacles, thereby giving you strategies to overcome them.
Many people call this failure, but I call this learning.
So, take action, it’s the chariot of genius!
Action brings luck
I was sharing my thoughts on taking action with a client and he added a bit of value to my thoughts. He said that he finds it brings luck.
Taking action helps you see opportunities. It sharpens your animal instincts. You can trust them to guide you.
My old chairperson said to me once that if you’re lying down you must be dead.
As Thomas Robert Gaines once said: ‘It is good to dream, but it is better to dream and work. Faith is mighty but action with faith is mightier. Desiring is helpful, but work and desire are invincible. Action is the only thing that counts.’

Successful people keep moving
What is success? It is the progressive realisation of a predetermined, worthwhile personal goal.
It is a thing of the present moment.
The implication is that you have a goal and you have to have steps to take.
When you move into action you are successful. It is not something that happens in the future. Nothing motivates like success.
My experience has been that if you take the first step, the process will take on a momentum of its own.

Theodore Roosevelt said ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.’
John Ruskin added to that when he said: ‘What we think we know is of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do.’
Hilton said: ‘Success is connected to action.’
Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes but they keep moving.
Identify a major problem in your life right now and write out the ideal solution.
List out the things that are stopping you from achieving this solution. Beside each one write down the strategies to overcome it and then move into action.
Credenta
I was going through my notes the other day and I came across something that had a huge impact on my life many years ago.
It is a Credenda that we should live by, from the book ‘The Gift of Acabar’ by Og Mandino.
It starts like this: Turn away from the crowd and it’s fruitless pursuit of fame and gold. Never look back as you close your door to the sorry tumult of greed and ambition.
Wipe away your tears of failure and misfortune. Lay aside your heavy load and rest until your heart is still. Be at peace. To read it all, click here.
The Paradox of Time
One of the best essays I’ve ever read is ‘The Paradox of Our Time’.
It begins like this: The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints; we spend more, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness. To read it in full, click here.

Final thoughts…
I really believe that action is all that matters.
Have the courage to take the first step and doors will open that you might never have imagined.
I’d like to close with a quote from Pearl Buck: ‘The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible and achieve it, generation after generation.’
What are you afraid of?
The life-changing magic of gratitude and GONE
CEOs are no superheroes, despite what people may think. They don’t know all the answers. Instead, the best ask lots of questions about how they can continuously improve themselves, their leadership and their organisations. I highly recommend practising gratitude in order to gain perspective on your life and all the blessings that you have.
Harnessing the hidden talents of introverted leaders
When we think of a leader, what do we think of? Usually it’s not our more quiet companions, but a person who is outgoing, commanding and good at speaking in front of large groups. But interestingly, when we look back over the history of the US presidency, leaders haven’t always been as outgoing as Donald Trump.
What does your business boil down to?
Discovering what your business boils down to starts with finding your why. Why do you want to make certain improvements or make certain changes? Having a compelling reason for making changes to your leadership style, for example, will make it a lot easier when things get tough.



