How to Take Action
8. Minimum Viable Action
I used to be a total perfectionist, until I discovered there’s an easier way to get things done.
Just like a company creates minimum viable product – a version of their product that works just well enough to offer to their first customers – there is also minimum viable action:
Action that does nothing more – and nothing less – than you need it to do.
Listen to this episode to learn how to take action easier.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
I am the queen of making things harder than they need to be, and if you are like this too, then you're gonna love today's episode because I'm gonna talk about how to get yourself to do stuff a much easier way.
So I've got an idea that I'm gonna share with you. When an entrepreneur creates a product for a startup, they are required to create what is called a Minimum Viable Product, an MVP. And that essentially means that they're creating like a prototype, a thing that they can get out into the world just to test it. Because instead of creating like the entire product straight away, the Minimum Viable Product is the minimum version that needs to happen. Like it's got none of the bells and whistles. It's just got like the absolute necessary pieces to test the idea and see if it works in the world. So I'm thinking about something like Facebook, which initially started out as something completely different from what it is right now, and they just put out this version and just tested it and put it out to the world like immediately and just waited for feedback to see what would happen. And then they adjusted it from there.
And so off the back of this idea of having a Minimum Viable Product , I've come up with this idea of the Minimum Viable Action and what a Minimum Viable Action is it's an action that does the job, does nothing more, nothing less, than the job it needs to do.
And I think the minimum viable action can have a lot of different names. So the other day when I was writing emails, I was calling this the Minimum Viable Email. For some reason, when I go to write emails, my brain is like, it needs to be perfect. We've gotta get this absolutely right. It needs to like convey everything. And I start to question myself like, should I put dear or hi or should I have sincerely or best or thanks on the end? And you know, do I need to have paragraphs and how many exclamation marks do I need to put? Should I have this exclamation mark there? Should I, should it be more of a formal tone? And it's like you start to get obsessed or I start to get obsessed, I should say, with like creating this final product almost when really a Minimum Viable Email would do it, it to, to get the result that I want. I don't need to worry about whether it's is dear or hi. What matters is I'm the question that I'm asking or the conversation that I'm having, and so I've been making myself do Mini Viable Emails, which is really just emails that do the job they ask the question, they say the thing, they're still polite and nice, but they don't need to be stressed over.
So I came up with a four step process for writing a Minimum Viable Email, and it looks like this: one, you write the first thoughts that come to your mind. Two, you do not edit. Three, you press send. Four, you save a million hours of your life and the person receiving it doesn't even notice a difference. So the Minimum Viable Email is just one example of where this might show up in your life, but you could also do the Minimum Viable facebook Post or a Minimum Viable Podcast.
I just created a Minimum Viable Podcast about regret. It is like, I don't know how long it's gonna be once I've edited it, but like a minute, two minutes long, and it's a podcast episode and I know some people create 40 minute podcast episodes, which is fantastic and amazing, but they don't have to be that long. What is the key, what is the point? I need to get the idea across the, the, the thing that I'm talking about. So the Minimum Viable Actions for that is just show up, record it, publish it, that's it. And it can be two minutes, it can be one. It could be one second if I wanted it to be, if I could get the idea across in that amount of time. And so I wanna offer that. You don't have to do that too. You can be on a quest like me for the Minimum Viable Αction that's gonna get you the results.
Think about how many decades of your life could you save if you just started taking Minimum Viable Actions. Where are you making your life harder than it needs to be? Where are you over complicating it? Where are you making things ridiculous? When they actually could just be a thing, when you could just send the email, when you could just pick up the phone and make the phone call instead of turning it into a giant drama of perfectionism and creating everything up to like the ultimate final result. What if you didn't need to do that? What if you could just do stuff and create.
Another example was when I realized that I didn't have to, this is gonna sound so silly for anyone who does, who doesn't spend their time posting online, but for me, I always thought I had to have a photo because on Instagram you can't post without a photo. Like it makes you put up a photo cause the whole platform is about putting up photos. But Facebook doesn't make you do that. But I had gotten in the habit of always putting up a photo with my posts on Facebook. And then it crossed my mind. I was like, wait a second. I could just treat Facebook like it's Twitter. And just write in the, in the box and then just post it like we used to in the old days. We could just make a status. When I first joined Facebook, that's what everybody did. We just made statuses and oh my goodness, my statuses are so embarrassing. Sometimes Facebook comes up with those memories, and my ones are like, I'm like, delete, delete, delete, delete. What was I saying? What was I thinking?
But the point is, I kind of wanna go back to how we used to do that in the sense of just treating the online space like it was something you could just post, instead of needing to have this perfect creation. Which I think a lot of people feel the pressure to do now, especially since so many people use social media as their job. Like there's content creators out there. Their content, they're getting paid directly for their content, which is not me, by the way. I've never had, I've never taken payment for any of the content that I create, like I don't have any ads or anything on any of my content, but because so many people do, and there's so much professional content out there now, it can really feel like you have to create this perfect content.
Another example is, let's just say your goal is to meditate. You don't have to meditate for an hour every day. When I meditated for 365 days in a row, some of the days I was just counting like deliberate breaths. If I just sat there, closed my eyes and breathed in and out, I would count this because it was continuing the habit on. I mean, I wouldn't count it if I was just breathing throughout the day. That's not really meditating. But if I was deliberately meditating for just a few moments, that's meditating, right? That's still getting more benefit than if I wasn't doing it at all.
So I think it's really key to start thinking. How we can get ourselves to just do the Minimun Viable Thing that moves us forward, that gets us a result, that actually gets us going in the right direction that we need to go in without all the fluff, without making it so hard for ourselves.
Derek Sivers, who is an entrepreneur and a writer, talks about how the goal is not to write more. The actual goal of writing is to just get the idea across, and so he has this whole idea around getting all your ideas out onto a page and then distilling it down to only like the most important key words, highlighting those, deleting the rest, and almost having an outline and then just publishing that outline. His books are actually just like a bunch of tweets, practically, like a bunch of tweets that make sense and all fit together but, there's no more fluff than needs to be there.
He is a master of the Minimum Viable Action, and I think there's so much freedom in this idea of the Minimum Viable Action. Like today, when I was doing my hair getting ready for this episode, I was thinking like, oh, I'm gonna have to create an episode and blah, blah, blah. And I had all these thoughts and I was thinking, oh, do I have to do it now? Do I, oh, could I do it later? Maybe I can squeeze it later in my day. And then, I realized, no, like I'm making this harder than it needs to be. All I have to do is sit down in front of the camera and the microphone and press record and actually create something that matters that can impact people. And I was like, oh, I can do that. It might take me five minutes, it might take me 20 minutes. It doesn't matter how long it takes, I just have to create the Minimum Viable Podcast that's gonna go out there and help someone, because that's really my goal, ultimately is just to help with this podcast, I wanna help people take action. So I'm like, that's all I have to do. Why am I trying to make it into this perfect podcastness? It doesn't need to be. It can just be a Minimum Viable Podcast.
Minimum Viable Dinner is one of my favourite things to do ever. I can't stand cooking at all. I really hate it. . So if it's my turn to cook, I am making us Minimum Viable Dinner what do we need to have? What do we need to get in our diets? What is important? How can I make this as easy as possible and as yummy as possible? And like the least amount of effort required? How can I do the Minimum Viable Dinner that I can make? I think that's a good one.
I would love to hear what Minimum Viable Actions you are taking in your life. So if you're watching on YouTube, then definitely leave me a comment about what your minimum viable action is that you like to take or that you're going to start taking, cause I think it could make a huge difference. It's making a big difference in my life.
So, That is your challenge for this week. Take some Minimum Viable Action and I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
7. Quick Decision Making Hack
Got a decision to make?
Afraid of regret?
Listen to this mini episode for a quick hack.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
This is gonna be a mini episode, which I think is funny because my episodes are kind of mini anyway. I know some people do like 40 minute episodes, but I can't talk for that long, nonstop. I definitely don't plan my podcast to be that long. So we'll see how long this one goes for today, but I think it's just gonna be a mini one about regret.
Because so often we are not taking action because we're afraid of what we're going to regret.
Something that really helps me make decisions is that there are two different kinds of regrets. Psychologists have kind of distilled that there's hot regret and there's cold regret. And hot regret means regretting something that you did do. So you took an action and now you regret doing it. And cold regret is regretting something that you didn't do.
So you didn't, you decided not to do something and you regret it. You wish you had done it. Psychologists say that cold regret is gonna mess you up way more. Cold regret is going to be far more horrible to experience than hot regret. So doing something that you regret, making a mistake or thinking that you shouldn't have done something, that doesn't actually stay with you for that long. You can get over it. You know, you made a mistake, but not doing something missing out on an opportunity when you know that you could have had it, that sits with people for much longer, and I think that that's so key when you make decisions. So I just wanted to put this out as a little juicy decision making help today.
Whatever decision you're trying to make right now, put it through the hot regret, cold regret question, and ask yourself, am I more likely to regret doing this or not doing this?
It's probably that you're gonna regret not doing it. That's the most likely thing. That's what psychologists are saying, but maybe not.
Just ask yourself right now. Are you more likely to regret doing it or not doing it?
All right. That is today's mini episode, and I will talk to you next week.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
6. Forget Productivity, Do This Instead
Are you always doing things, but never moving forward?
There are 100 ways to be more productive.
But sometimes, trying to be more productive can actually block you from hitting your goals.
Listen to this episode to find out what to focus on instead.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
I wanna talk about productivity today, but I wanna talk about it in a way that's a little bit different than you might have heard before, because there are a lot of books and podcasts, and a lot of information out there about productivity and everyone has their own way of going about it and how to make you the most productive version of you ever.
But I think sometimes we miss the point. I just wanna illustrate this by sharing with you some examples of how sometimes being productive is actually keeping you stuck where you are, because of the nature of productivity.
Productivity is about getting things done and getting them done efficiently, right? But just getting stuff done doesn't mean that you're gonna hit your goal. Achieving a bunch of things is not enough to constitute like our actual results in the world.
So for example, you can put out a hundred loads of washing in a day, and be making dinner for everyone, and have made your bed, and done a bunch of organizing at home, and still not be any closer to your goal, because you have just been productive on the spot. Like a little hamster wheel is what I'm imagining. You're like running really fast and you've got heaps of reps in, but you are just staying exactly where you are.
And that's why I don't like to think of productivity as the main, most important thing you want to develop as a skill. I like to think of progression as the skill that is more important to develop.
So taking action alone just to take action isn't effective unless it actually progresses you forward. So I wanna talk about how to progress today because it is not enough to just take action. You have to take action that creates a result, and that is how I think about the difference. So productivity to me is taking a lot of action and progression is taking action that gets you a forward moving result, something that moves the needle, something that actually pushes you closer to where you want to be.
It is the difference between me right now filming this episode and actually uploading it so that you can hear it or watch it. I can be as productive as I want creating stuff, but if I don't actually turn it into something, I'm not seeing a result.
I was working with one of my clients the other day on, they wanted to hire somebody, and so they were like, yeah, this is great. I'm gonna go and write the job description. We had this conversation throughout this of like whether writing a job description is actually progressing because it's an important step in the process, but if you just write the job description, you're no closer to actually having that person hired if you don't do anything with that job description. Writing the job description and then posting it online for somebody to see that would be progress. But just writing it and keeping it on your laptop or your computer and not doing anything with it, that's not progression because it's just sitting there.
So you have to actually do something that creates a result, even if it's a tiny, small result, you really want your actions to feel progressive. Writing the job description today and then posting it tomorrow is progress. But it's only progress tomorrow when you post it. Think about all the things that you might have done that took a lot of effort, a lot of action, but then nothing ever happened from them. Books that sat on your computer, ideas that you wrote down, that you never took any action on. Really what I'm saying is you can start running all of your ideas and your actions through a filter, instead of, am I being productive? Am I progressing forward? Am I actually, is this action actually gonna help me move forward? Or how could I turn this action that I'm doing today into a progressive action rather than just a productive action?
This is gonna sound so silly, but I wanna give you an example from Shrek, Shrek Four. So, if you've seen Shrek and I have this huge argument in my family about whether Shrek one is better or Shrek two is better. Uh, we don't even talk really about Shrek three and Shrek four, cuz not as many people have seen it. But definitely I am in the boat that Shrek two is better than Shrek one. So hit me up if you think that Shrek two is also better than Shrek one. I still think Shrek one's a great movie. I just think Shrek two, like hardly any sequels are as good as the first one. And I think that this one deserves an award cause I think it's better. So in Shrek Four. It's the one with Rumpelstiltskin. If you have seen it. If you haven't, it's kind of cute. I would recommend watching it. Rumpelstiltskin comes and in exchange for getting Shrek the life that he wants, Rumpelstiltskin asks if he can take a day from Shreks life, like that's what he wants in return, I'll give you what you want, but I'm gonna take one day of your life away. And he ends up taking Shrek the day Shrek was born away.
This idea of taking a day away from your life always stuck with me and I, after watching that movie, it like, it's so silly, but it's been something that I've thought about a lot and asking myself, if today was erased from existence, would it make a difference? What did I do today? That would mean that if today was a race from existence, it would actually matter and affect the future. So if I just do productive work, which is I put on lots of washing and make my bed and make dinner and you know, do household chores, see my friends like great things, but none of them progress me forward.
You could take that day away and it wouldn't make an impact at all. And it kind of scares me to think about the number of days that you could take away from my life where I could still be here, where I am right now. How many of my days was I actually progressing towards my dreams and my goals? And this isn't to say that your whole life should be spent progressing forward, but what if each day was just one tiny little piece of progression for it. That meant that if Rumpelstiltskin came and asked for a day in your life, you, there's no way you would want to give it. Because every single day made an impact. Every single day moved you closer to the life and the world that you wanted to see.
No matter how small you want to make progress every day. You never want today to not count.
Think about your life, and if you're looking back on it, like if you're a hundred years old and you're looking back on your life, you don't wanna be like, oh, well there was that like ten-year gap when nothing counted. Right? Or there was like all those days that I spent that didn't really mean anything. And then I, I really wanna stress that this isn't to say you need to be like hustling or working your ass off all the time. That's not what I'm saying at all what.
I am saying is that when you are taking action and you are trying to be productive, ask yourself, is this progressive? If today was removed from existence, if this action was removed from existence, would it affect the final outcome? Would it actually affect the future or not? And I think that's really powerful because it suddenly changes the way you do things. So I'm recording this episode right now, which is only progressive if I do something with it, if it sits in my hard drive, nothing's gonna happen. I have to actually today turn it into an outcome, like I need to actually publish this episode so that, would create an effect, right? Somebody might listen to it and if this day was taken away, then you know, not only is my life gonna be different, but their life that's gonna be different, and we're gonna have this huge like butterfly effect that's gonna happen.
Taking action alone isn't enough. You really want to take action until you see a result. Until you see an outcome, even if it's the tiniest, smallest outcome, make your actions count. Make them progressive rather than just see how much stuff you can get done in a day with no actual outcomes.
And to be clear, like I have plenty of days where I am mostly chill and I just relax. I see my friends, I put on washing, I do whatever. I might be productive or I might not be productive at all, but I try to always do something small that is progressive that says, today counted, you can't take today away. It would matter. It would affect me. Whether that's sending one email that's gonna make an impact on my goal, whether it's signing up for something, whether it is connecting with somebody that I need to connect with for my goals. Everything has to be progressive. If you took today away, would it matter?
We can even take this a step further. I recently wrote and published an article for an online news hub, and in order to do that, I pitched my idea, I wrote the idea, and I pitched it. Then the person didn't reply straight away, and I was like, this isn't any progression. It doesn't actually move me closer to the goal unless I get a reply, unless I get a yes or a no, so that I can make my next action. So, I followed up and then they replied, and I think what's and, and then eventually it got published. But I think what's so key here is. Sometimes you have to look for what is gonna be the actual piece that's gonna progress me? Is it progressive to write the email and send it, or is it only progressive once you actually get a result that you can then make a new decision from? So if even if I'd heard no from them, I would've still then been like, okay, cool, I'm gonna go send it to somebody else. And that would've been progressive action. But even just sending it and hear, not hearing a reply, might not actually be progressive cause I just, then I'm just like, then what? I don't know, I, I'm not gonna do anything or change anything.
So ask yourself, is what I'm doing progressive? Is this creating a result? And if it's not, keep acting. Keep taking action until you see a result that is actually moving you forward. And it might be tiny, it might be just following up with someone on email.
But putting all of your actions through this filter will supercharge your ability to create results. It will make you 10 times more effective at what you do, because you're actually thinking about the outcome that you wanna create and not just the thing that you're doing.
And again, this is not saying that everything you do needs to have a result. This is only for the things that you want to create results with. It is totally fine to sit around and do nothing all day. If that is what you wanna do, please be my guest. Go for it. I am not at all trying to tell anyone they need to do more or take action on anything unless that is your desire. And for me that is, that's what I wanna do. I want to create, I wanna make things happen. I wanna hit my goals. And so that's why I'm so passionate about how to take action. That is why this whole podcast is here in the first place.
So put your actions through that filter. Is this progressive or just productive? And I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggle. So you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
5. If It Matters, Do It Daily
I blogged every day for 730 days.
I meditated for 365 days in a row.
Because doing something every day is actually easier than doing it once in a while.
Listen to this episode to discover how showing up daily will change your life forever.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
It is so much easier to do something every single day than it is to do it once in a while.
That's why on today's episode we're gonna be talking about if it matters, do it daily. This is kind of my mantra because if something really matters to me, doing it once in a while is not going to be effective. It matters so much more what you do every day than what you do once a week or once a month.
When you do something every single day, you never have to ask yourself: is today one of the days is do does today count? What about tomorrow? Like, maybe, could I do it tomorrow instead? If you haven't done it since you woke up today, you gotta do it before you go to sleep tonight.
And the freedom that that allows is really amazing.
I started a blog in 2016 and it had like 10 posts on it in the next 12 months, maybe 10 posts. I always used to think that if I did something every single day, it would take so much more work than doing it once in a while. Like at the time, posting on my blog once a month seemed so much more manageable than posting once a week or every day.
But actually, it's complete opposite because it became totally unmanageable to do it once a week or once a month because it didn't, I didn't have a natural routine. It became so much more difficult because it wasn't really integrated in my life. I wasn't used to doing it. When it came time to do it, it was kind of like, ah, this thing that I'm supposed to do this month, I forgot I need to do it.
Instead of, it became such a part of my daily routine, it actually became easier and I wanted to share the thinking behind why I decided to do two years, because like that's a really random amount of time. Why didn't I just do one year? And sometimes I think about that now I'm like, I could have totally done one year, but I wouldn't have learned the lessons that I've learned doing two years.
I was actually inspired by someone named Sean West who wrote this blog post, and I'm gonna read it to you right off my computer right here. So, that you can kind of get the depth of why I decided to blog for two years in a row instead of just blogging for like 30 days in a row, for example. So this is what he says. He's talking about if you've got something that really matters to you in your life, then this is his advice.
"Show up every day for two years. That's the golden answer right there. It will make you money. It will build an audience. It will solve most of your problems. It will develop the tenacity needed to survive in this world. It will teach you that those who are successful aren't successful because of some condensed version of their story, but because they made a commitment to show up every single day. When it was really hard, when it sucked and it looked like nothing would ever come of it, but no one will hear this advice because show up every day for two years isn't microwavable."
That last line? I remember just thinking, boom. It like hit me like a ton of breaks. Show up every day for two years isn't microwavable. And it hit me because I was like, the reason I'm not being as successful as I could be is because I want the microwavable version. I want the one that you just pop in the microwave for 30 seconds and out comes all your success. I was looking for like a magic pill that I could take that would suddenly change my entire life. And I'd been searching for that.
And this post itself made me realize there is no magic pill. I am the magic pill, and I'm gonna have. Show up every day for a long time. If I wanna see my overnight success happen.
And you know what? He was right. It's not necessarily because of my blog that my business worked, but it's because of the dedication and the shift in the way that I started showing up for my business when I started showing up daily for something that really mattered. It completely changed the kind of person that I was and the way that I showed up for my business.
And so now before I started, I was like working in a call center and now I have my own business and I'm running it full-time and it's going really well. And what's the difference, right? I learned to commit to showing up every single day for two years, and I think especially the two year piece hits me because it's like you're not just showing, one year surely would've been enough, but two years, it's like, can you wake up one day and commit for two years to this dream?
And if you can't, you probably don't want the dream enough. You probably don't really want it. If you can't see yourself showing up for it every single day for the next two years, you probably only want the end result, and don't actually want to create it yourself. You just wanna be handed it.
And listen, if we could all be handed our goals, that'd be ideal. I would not be opposed to that. But unfortunately that's not the way that it works.
And so if you really want something, you're gonna have to be willing to show up for it every single day for two years.
So think about right now, what is it in your life that you could be showing up for every single day for two years, and what could you commit to?
I made a real public declaration that I was gonna do this. I said to my Instagram, my Facebook, my, on the blog that I was writing, I posted it to the world that I was gonna do this, and that really held me accountable.
Like the embarrassment of not completing it would've been too much for me to handle. I would not have liked that at all. So I was devoted. I was completely committed. I was gonna do it and I did.
But if I were to do a two year challenge again, I would do one that was really specific to the goal that I wanted to go after.
So really think about, well, what is the goal that you want? And then reverse engineer that and think about what would be an action that I could do every single day that would really change things.
It's gotta be a challenge, but you don't wanna set yourself up to fail either. So blogging was really good because there was no number of words that I had to write. There was no, I could do one line or I could do a massive paragraph as long as I showed up every day for it. So you wanna definitely not, you don't wanna be giving yourself the challenge to put out a 20 minute YouTube video every single day if you've never put out a YouTube video before. You don't wanna probably give yourself the challenge to run 10 k every day if you have never run 10 k, but run every day could totally be an option. Or film something every day could be an option. So other options that I came up with that I wrote down as well, get properly dressed every day, that could be a goal that for me, really made a difference.
It might sound like it's not impactful, but when I am ready and like properly dressed and I have my hair and makeup, I'm like, oh, I can just quickly film something and put it, or I could do a live stream, or I could pop out in the street and talk to someone that I need to talk to. Like I'm suddenly more ready to attack my goals that day than if I'm not fully dressed in the morning. So that one actually makes a really big difference to me.
Another one is you could write one page of your book every day, for example, or one of my clients wrote 600 words every single day until she hit 50,000 words in her book.
You could pitch an offer every day. If you have a business, you could show up and make an offer every single day. That's actually something that I did every day. My, I committed to doing it every day until I created clients, and that was a really big turning point in my business a few years ago when I said, okay, I'm going to just put out an offer every single day. I'm gonna tell people every single day that they can come and work with me and I did it for 14 days straight and it was complete silence. And then on the 15th day, I had three applications come in, maybe even four. And I was like, what? This is amazing.
So, I remember realizing how powerful it was to do something daily in the sense of my business like that.
Another one that I did is I meditated for 365 days in a row every day. I had spent a long time in my life before that meditating on and off and on and off, but doing it for that 365 days was a real challenge, but I loved it because I knew I could meditate for like one minute or 20 minutes. It didn't matter what I was doing, I was just always showing up and always meditating.
And through this process, you're gonna really develop your commitment and your discipline muscles to really continually show up for something that you want to do every day.
I will say I don't recommend trying to do too many of these commitments at once. You probably just wanna pick the most important thing to you right now, and do that every single day.
Because if you have a list, which I used to have of like all of these daily commitments that you're doing, it can start to get a bit overwhelming and you're more likely to just stop doing them entirely. So I would recommend picking one thing that really matters to you and doing it every single day.
So my mantra can be your mantra now, "if it matters, do it daily," and I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set. Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
4. Discipline vs Devotion
Discipline is getting yourself to do something you don't want to do.
Devotion is learning how to LOVE doing it.
And once you’re devoted, taking action becomes effortless.
Listen to this episode learn how to develop devotion to your goal.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
Right before recording this episode, I did not wanna be doing it. I was sitting on the couch thinking how much I could just do it tomorrow, like tomorrow's, Saturday. I could just spend my weekend doing it instead. I don't have to do it today, like I could do it on Sunday. I've got plenty of time then, and I started to talk myself out of making this podcast episode.
So it's actually kind of perfect because, I think sometimes people think because they see me posting a lot about discipline and taking a ton of action, that that means I never feel any form of procrastination or that I never feel like not following through, which is the complete opposite because actually the reason I'm totally the ideal person to teach this is because like face this stuff all the time, every day I face the struggle of getting myself to do the thing, but I'm so good at doing it now that I understand how to get myself out of that state more and more quickly each time, I'm in it, and so here I am, ready to teach it to you.
There is a difference between disciplining yourself to do something and being so devoted that you don't even question whether you're gonna do it or not.
And I wanna talk today about that, about devotion and devoting yourself to your goal so that you don't even need discipline.
And there are of course times you're gonna need discipline in your life. It's not like you're never gonna need to use that skill. I really believe in learning how to get yourself to be disciplined, and I'm gonna talk about that in another episode. Discipline you might need, for example, in the case of getting yourself to do something that you have no real desire to actually do. Laundry or filing your taxes, but you've gotta do it anyway. And so you need the discipline to follow through even when you don't feel like it. So I will be discussing in another episode how to get yourself into like full on discipline mode.
But for today I wanna talk about the magic of devotion and how when you devote yourself, it becomes a whole new situation.
Discipline requires self-control. It means that you have to get yourself to do something you don't really wanna do, and devotion is so different. Devotion is where you feel it's almost effortless. I equally believe in the importance of effort and effortlessness. There are times for both, and the more we can move from effort to effortlessness within our goals, the better. It takes effort to become devoted. But once you're devoted, taking action is completely effortless.
And so that's the difference and that's why it's so important that we learn, not just discipline, but devotion. Because once you're devoted, you're just gonna do the thing. It doesn't even take any effort. You just do it. Of course you do. It's not even a question.
So I wanted to give some examples today of where in my life I feel really devoted and where I'm working on my devotion.
Okay, so how do you become devoted? How do you get yourself to be devoted to your goal? You have to really look at the bigger picture when it comes to devotion. I like to think of it like discipline is looking at the really small, little part of the equation, but devotion. You need to look at the bigger picture. You really need to zoom out and think about your why and your reason behind why you want to go after your goal. And I'll give you some examples from my life because I think that these examples make it all really clear.
So, for example, I don't drink alcohol and I don't think there's anything wrong with anybody else drinking alcohol, but I just don't drink it myself, and I'm completely devoted to that. I have no need to do it. And sometimes people ask me like, doesn't it take so much discipline? And I'm like, it takes no discipline at all, at all to not drink.
Like even if there's a glass of wine or a beer or something in front of me, it's just not even an option. Like, I think of it, it's like, it's almost like it's paint water sitting in front of me. You know how like when you do like, painting and you've like, you've got a, a paintbrush that's dipped in the water and it's going all gray and brown from all the different colors that you've dipped in it. It's not like you would have to discipline yourself or I would have to discipline myself to. Not drink that, of course I'm not gonna drink it and just, I'm devoted to not putting paint water in my body just the same way as I'm devoted to not putting alcohol in my body. It's not that I think there's anything wrong with it, I just don't wanna do it. So I'm completely devoted.
One thing that I am working on to get become devoted to is my health. So, I do currently need to discipline myself to exercise or to sleep at a certain time. And I know that's because I don't have a bigger why. My health is relatively okay. It's pretty good. And so, shifting from disciplining myself to exercise, to devoting myself to it is going, is taking a process.
It's not instant, like I said before. It takes effort to be devoted, but once you're devoted, then it's effortless.
I also wanna make the distinction between energy and effort, because of course it's going to take energy to do things in your business or in at the gym or in whatever part of your goal that you have. Of course, it's gonna take energy, but it's effortless to use that energy, right? Like of course you just show up and do it. Of course you will. You're devoted.
I really think of devotion like this, almost like giving of yourself over, like you sacrifice in such a beautiful way. Like you want to, you want to give yourself, you want to sacrifice yourself to this goal. You would do anything for it, kind of like a mother duck for her ducklings. You would just do anything for those little ducklings. You're just completely devoted to them.
How do you find that bigger why? You really wanna ask yourself, why does this matter to me? Because right now with my exercise, it matters to me cuz I'm gonna stay healthy, but I'm kind of already sort of healthy-ish and I don't really notice a difference when I exercise right now.
So I know that I'm going to need to search for reasons why it is absolutely paramount that I start exercising and, sleeping at the same time every night. And it's not gonna have to come from a place of like being scared, right? I don't have to scare myself or into taking action like you're gonna die if you don't do exercise three times a week, right?
I could pick a goal that is really exciting. Like, for example, doing a marathon or doing a big, doing an Ironman or, competing in a competition. Something that would mean that going to the gym had meaning behind it. And if I don't go, then I'm gonna have an issue later on, and so I wouldn't have to discipline myself because I would just be devoted to going.
So you really wanna find out for yourself. I would do a journaling exercise if I were you, and this is what I've been currently doing with my health as well, is journal on the question: why is this so important to me? What are the consequences if I don't do this? Why am I devoted?
And instead of thinking to yourself when it comes to time to do the thing that you need to do for your goal, instead of thinking like, Ugh, I should do this. I have to make myself do it. Ask yourself why you want to do it, why it's so important to you.
And so, for example, with this podcast episode today, have to discipline myself, but I did have to ask myself again why I was devoted to doing it. And I am devoted because I have a mission to help people take action in their lives, cause I think it's gonna change the world if we can all learn how to get ourselves to take action.
And so devotion really becomes part of who you are. When you devote yourself to something fully, you are changing who you are and how you see yourself as a person. It's not just an action that you're doing, it's a lifestyle. It's a personality, it's an identity. It's a self-concept of the kind of person that you are.
You're like, you're the kind of parent who always picks their kids up from school because you're devoted to them. You're the kind of person who always shows up for your clients or you're business. You're the kind of person who puts their health first and and makes that an absolute priority.
Devotion takes time. You're probably not gonna wake up one day in the morning and just realize I'm completely devoted to this goal that I wasn't devoted to yesterday. It's going to be a process of continually thinking about why you're devoted to this until one day you really do feel completely devoted.
The reason why devotion is so powerful is because you are really saying to yourself, I want to do this thing, which is different from discipline where you're telling yourself, I don't really wanna do this thing, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
It's you really making the shift from feeling trapped like you have to do the thing and feeling free, like you get to do the thing.
So devotion is really a two-part process. It's asking yourself, why is this so important to me? And then reminding yourself when it comes time to take the action, I want to do this. I'm devoted to doing.
All right. That's it. I will talk to you in the next episode.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set. Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
3. Commiting to the Outcome
So often we commit to the actions for our goals, but not to the end result.
The key is to commit to the outcome.
In this episode, I’m sharing examples of how I commit to the outcome, and how you can too.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
Today, I wanna talk about committing to the outcome of your goal, because so often we think about setting a goal and we commit to trying to fulfill the actions to achieve the goal. We commit to hoping that it's gonna happen, instead of committing to making it happen.
And an example that I always like to use is imagine if you were, like, if you've got kids, I don't have kids, so you're gonna have to imagine if you don't have kids. But like if you had to pick your kid up from school, you would be committed to the end result of them coming home. You're not committing to like getting in the car and like putting your shoes on and like hopefully they arrive home at some point, like you're committed to the result of getting them home.
There is no scenario where that kid stays at school overnight. You will even if you break your leg, right? Even if you absolutely hurt yourself or you for some reason, something goes completely wrong, like you will find a way to get them home from school. You will get another trusted adult to pick them up.
The goal itself isn't negotiable. It's completely non-negotiable, and so that's the way that I wanna offer that you can start thinking about all of your goals, by committing to the outcome rather than committing to trying.
As an example, in July, 2020, I had the goal to hit 600 subscribers on my YouTube channel. And I think at the time I had done, I about, I had about 452, I think at the beginning on July 1st, and I wanted to get to 600 and it had taken me like several years to build up that 452 people. And so I was like, okay, this is a big goal to try to get to 600. But I was like, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna commit to the outcome.
And so, I made a list of all the things that I would be willing to do to achieve it. This list wasn't everything that I had to do to achieve my goal. This was just a list of things that I could do if it came down to it, that would make sure that I did achieve the goal, like, Things that I was willing to do to commit to the outcome, to guarantee that I would definitely hit 600.
So, on the list included messaging every single person that I knew on Facebook and individually asking them all to please subscribe to my YouTube channel, or to make a YouTube account and subscribe to my YouTube channel.
It included going around my neighborhood and knocking on doors and asking. In person, will you subscribe? And like that one terrified me. I remember thinking like I really didn't wanna have to do it.
And then I remember the one that I remember thinking like, oh, there's no way I'm gonna have to do this. Which was go to the mall and just ask strangers, just like whoever was around in the mall and just ask them. And you know what, I think it was the 30th, the 31st of December, I still had 13 subscribers. Cause I had managed to get all the way up till I guess 587 subscribers. But I had still 13 more subscribers to get to 600. So I was. I'm gonna have to do one of these things, like extra things on my list that I hadn't already done.
I'd already messaged so many people on Facebook asking them to subscribe. I decided I was gonna have to go to the mall. And I did. I went down to the mall and I asked people, complete strangers. "Hi. So I'm, my name's Sarah. I, yeah, you, sorry. Yeah, no, you, yeah. Hi. Sorry to interrupt. Um, I actually, um, am just trying to get to 600 subscribers on YouTube. I'm doing this challenge to try and see if I can get to it by the end of the month, and I just have 13 more people. I was just wondering, like, would you be willing to subscribe to my YouTube channel? Yeah, I do. I do videos on motivation and mindset. Oh, thank you so much. That'd be amazing."
And then I would wait.
I would sit there and I would wait or stand there and I would type it in sometimes into their phone, which one it was. I would wait until they actually clicked subscribe. Everybody was so gracious and lovely. I don't think any of them unsubscribed at all, which was so sweet.
And I got to my 600. I asked so many people.
It was so embarrassing. I got, actually, it was so funny because one of the people that I asked, she was like, wait, are you Helena's sister? And I was like, yeah. Because I have a little sister called Helena, and she goes, oh, I'm already subscribed. She already sent it round to everybody in our school . So embarrassed, because I had asked, already asked my little sister if she would send it to every person in her school. And basically, apparently she did. And these people had been, some of this woman had been one of the subscribers, this girl. And so I was like, what's the coincidence? She was the first person that I asked as well. It was so bizarre. She was working in a cafe and they were just closing up and I was like, Hey. And she's like, I'm already subscribed to you. And I'm like, this is crazy.
Clearly I had been putting in a lot of effort to get these subscribers. And that's what I did. I got to these subscribers, I got to 600 subscribers, and then I actually, because I was videoing myself, and I think you can find the video of me doing this on my highlight reel on Instagram, because I was doing that and I shared it on Instagram, I then got a bunch more from committing to the outcome of making the subscribers happen and not committing to trying. And I know this because so many other times I had committed to trying and hadn't achieved it at all.
So one of my friends Kat said recently, you don't just wanna be willing to do whatever it takes. You wanna be eager to do whatever it takes. You wanna be so committed that you're eager to do whatever it takes to achieve this goal.
And think about it like with your kid, if you're picking your kid up from school, you're not just gonna be like willing to do whatever it takes. You're gonna be eager to do whatever it takes. You want to get that kid home, like you do not want them staying at school overnight.
And, I wanna think, I think about it like this, if you could have it that much commitment to a kid for an entire, for their entire childhood, for 18 years, for their lifetime, you can create that kind of commitment for one goal for like a month or a year, or however long you're going after your goal for you can totally create that kind of commitment. You just have to get yourself into the belief that you are committed to the outcome and not committed to just trying, and it will shift the way that you go after your goals forever.
So my challenge to you is to come up with a list. All the things that you would be willing and eager to do to go, to commit to your goal, to make sure that your goal happens.
And I don't want you to not hit the goal until you've done absolutely every single one of those things on the list. And then some. If you then don't hit your goal, then we can talk about, then we can figure out, okay, what happened? What went wrong, right. Something has clearly gone terribly wrong.
But if you have really committed to the outcome of making it happen, I don't think you're ever gonna see that situation.
I have never had a goal that I committed to the final outcome so hard that I was willing to do anything it took and eager to do anything it took, and didn't hit it. I can think of times where I've gone after goals and thought that I was in that mentality, but then when it came down to it on the last day or so, I'd be like, oh yeah, no, I, I don't know.
Like maybe it's just not meant to be. Right. And then you like self sabotage your way out of your goal. You do not wanna be in that energy you wanna commit right up until the very last moment.
I always like to think like, if you've ever seen any romcom movie, ever, Nobody ever achieves anything up until the last minute anyway, it's like the final moment, and sometimes even right after the final moment, maybe it'll be like the 1st of August, right? That I would hit it. It doesn't matter, right? Like if you achieve your goal, you achieve your goal. You wanna commit to the outcome and be eager and willing to do anything. So make your list of things and then commit to actually doing them.
That is my challenge to you.
All right, that is today's episode. I look forward to talking to you in the next one.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles, so you can hit any goal you set. Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
2. How to Hit Any Goal
Every single day, I work on my belief that I’m the kind of person that can hit ANY goal I set myself.
It’s how I do things like 50 push ups in a row and blogging for two years in a row.
Because I genuinely believe I can do them, before I've done them.
Listen to this episode to find out the three questions I answer every day that have helped me hit goals I once thought were impossible.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
Today we're gonna talk about how to hit any goal you set, and we're gonna talk about it through the lens of identity, because your identity, who you believe you are, is the most important aspect of goal getting. Hands down, 100%, it is the most important thing that you have in your toolbox, and I'm gonna share with you the three questions that have made the biggest difference in my life in going after my goals, and how I started to really understand how to hit a goal, no matter what goal I put in front of myself, whether it felt totally realistic or completely impossible.
And so I'm gonna dive straight into these three questions and I'm gonna explain them along the way.
So, The first question that I ask myself every single day, and mind you, I ask myself these questions, it could be in the shower or it could be when I first wake up. It could be in a conversation. Sometimes I journal on them, but I ask myself these questions whenever I'm going after a goal, which is always, so I'm always asking myself these questions. So the first one is, what result do I want? And the reason that it's so important for us to think about that answer every single day is so that we're constantly aligned with where we want to go.
Because it is so easy to start taking a ton of action just in your day without it actually being aligned with exactly where you want to be headed. So knowing when I ask myself, what result do I want? , I get to align myself for that day or for that year or for whatever time period I'm kind of asking this for.
And sometimes I change my answer to that question. So it might be that today I'm going after a health and fitness goal, and tomorrow I'm going after a business goal, and that's my focus for the day. So I will always just pick one result. What result do I want? What end result do I. So that's number one.
Before I tell you what number two is, I want you to think about what we usually ask ourselves once we know our result. We would usually think, "Okay, now what do I need to do?" But the problem with asking that question is you could put in all the effort all the time, put in a ton of action, and still not be achieving the result that you want because you'd be taking action from the current version of you. The version of you that doesn't know how to achieve it, the version of you that hasn't already achieved it, the version of you that doesn't have your goal. So you're gonna be always be at a disadvantage if you're asking yourself, as the second question, "what do I need to do?"
Really, the most valuable second question you can ask yourself, and this is the second question is "who do I need to be to create this result?" And when you're asking that , that question to yourself, what you're really doing is asking, what is the future version of me like?
Who is that version, the one who's already achieved this goal? What are they, like, what kind of qualities do they have? Who are they? So you could answer this question. Who do I need to be is confident or who do I need to be is bold, or something like that, or calm. But I love to answer the question just to kind of give it a bit more clarity within this, with an actual person.
So I will think of somebody that I want to be, who I think could totally smash this goal. So for example, it's so often for me is Elle Woods, the character Elle Woods. Who do I need to be? It's Elle Woods. Of course, Elle Woods would be able to hit my goal. So now I've got a really clear image of who it is that I need to be.
The third question is now, now that I already am that person, now that they're already within me because I possess all the same qualities that Elle Woods has inside me. They may not be coming up, but they're all inside .Now that I already am that person, what do I do? What do I wear? What do I say? What do I eat? What do I drive? How do I get dressed in the morning? What do I have for breakfast? How do I respond to requests today?
Only once I have figured out who it is that I need to be and imagine myself as that person do I start thinking about or what it is that I need to do. And that way I'm always taking action from a version of who actually has achieved the goal. From a version of me who knows exactly what to do instead of taking action from the current me, which is tired, or the current me who's tired and exhausted and doesn't really know what I'm doing. If I think about, well, what my future self do, my answers are completely different.
So to recap the questions, what result do I want? Who do I need to be to create that result? And now that I already am that person, What do I do? Eat, say, wear, believe. And then your job, once you've done that, is to actually go and execute on those things and take your day as if you are that person.
There's this actress and coach, and her name is Jacqueline Gates, and she has an amazing way of looking at this. So she says that when you decide your goal, when you know what result you want, It's like you've auditioned for a part and you've got it. They've said, "yep, the part's yours." Now it's your job to learn the lines and do the costume changes and create the set around you until it all just falls together, and then one day you realize you are that person. You're not even pretending to be them anymore.
So it's sort of like this whole framework idea of the three questions that you need to ask yourself, it's kind of like you're a method acting your way to your goal.
So instead of just trying to do it from the current version of you who totally has no idea what they're doing, you wanna step into the version of you who already knows what they're doing, and you have to practice their lines. How do they talk? How do they walk? What do they eat in the morning? What are they saying? What are they, how do they respond to a request? What do they do if somebody comes in and like asks them to do something, when they plan to do something else that day. How do they approach people if they need to make calls or emails or meet people in the street?
How do they solve problems? What do they have around them? What kind of clothes do they put on? You're creating this entire world of method acting your way into your goal. For acting they call that getting into character, and in real life we just call it shifting your identity. So your job is to shift your identity from the version of you that you are right now to the version of you who already has your goal before you have it. And it's really important that you make the shift beforehand because otherwise you will always be chasing to catch up to your goal.
In order to get from where you are right now to where you wanna be, you have to be the person that is already where you wanna be. You have to embody them. And then once you're embodying them, the rest of it all comes automatically. You know exactly what to do, what to say, how to achieve the goal, the how very quickly comes into place.
So I wanna give you a couple of examples of what I'm talking about because I think it's gonna make a lot more sense.
So, One result that I really badly wanted in my life that really did feel impossible at the time was to enjoy flying. In 2019, and for 10 years previous to that, I hated flying. I hated it with all of my guts. I was terrified constantly that something was gonna go wrong and that the plane would crash and we'll die. Like, I don't know where this came into my head, cause when I was a kid I was absolutely fine. But there was some point in my life where I must have been on a scary flight and instead of thinking the thought, "oh that was a scary flight," I had the thought and the belief "I am someone who's afraid of flying," and I took it on as an identity.
It became part of who I am as a person. I played the character of scared, freaked out person on the plane really well. I would grip the seats. I would be constantly on the lookout for any signs of danger. Like, did that person look really dodgy? What's in their bag? Did you see that like noise go off and like, oh, the noises, oh my goodness. They were the worst.
Until I discovered that I could do this and I could shift my identity. And so one day I figured out, okay, what if I just myth act my way into being a person who enjoys flying? And I'm gonna get on this flight today, and I'm going to pretend that I am someone who loves flying. And so I asked myself, okay, first of all, what result do I want? I want to not be, I wanna enjoy flying. Who do I need to be to create that result? At the time I chose Miley Cyrus, she just seemed like somebody who would be super chill on a plane and just, she probably flies everywhere, all over the world all the time.
So I was like, okay, now that I'm Miley, What do I do now that I already am her? Cause I have all the qualities that she has. Maybe I'm not such as a great singer as she is, but in terms of air transport, I think I have all the qualities that she possesses within air transport. And so I asked myself, well, how would she walk onto the plane?
And I walked onto the plane the way that I thought Miley would walk on the plane, and I asked myself, "What movie would she watch?" "What would she think when the plane was taking off?" "What would she order from the snacks cart?" "How would she sit in her seat?" "What did she think about the destination that she was going to?" "How did she speak to the stranger who was sitting next to her? Did she speak to them at all?" And I just started acting into it.
And instead of being scared, that whole. I had the best time and I couldn't believe it. I didn't feel any fear the entire time because I was purely stepping into the version of myself that had already let go of my fear of flying.
All of the qualities that I was perceiving in Miley Cyrus, right, they were already within me, but, I found it really easy to take somebody else's character or their identity as like to personify and make it really clear exactly what it is that I needed to do. And so I realized I can enjoy flying and eventually now I don't need to pretend that I'm anybody else. I can actually just walk onto a plane and enjoy it because I know that I love flying because I've made that part of who I am now. My identity is I am a person who loves flying.
Okay, so you might be thinking. That's cool, Sarah, but like that's not really a goal. That's just like a fear that you overcame.
So I wanna share with you an another example of when I went after a crazy goal. A couple years ago, I wanted to get into this prestigious Mastermind. And the Mastermind was outrageously expensive, like so much money. And you had to have already earned a certain amount of money to get into the Mastermind. So they wouldn't take people who were just beginners in their business, they would only take people who had earned a certain threshold of money. And, I so badly wanted to be in it, but I was nowhere near the threshold. And so in my mind I thought, okay, I'll wait till next year. Maybe in like the following year, maybe that's when I'll be able to get there.
And then I started watching Michael Jordan's documentary on Netflix. It's called The Last Dance, and if you haven't seen it, you have to see it because it's totally amazing. And I had the thought, Michael Jordan wouldn't wait for another year before he tried to get into this mastermind. If he was in my shoes, he would totally go after it right now.
And so I asked myself, what result do I want? I wanna get into the Mastermind. Who do I need to be Michael Jordan? Now that I already am Michael Jordan, what do I believe? What do I do? I started acting like Michael Jordan. Every second of my day, I was so disciplined. I have never had a period of my life where I've been so incredibly disciplined.
I would stay up late, I would get up early. I would do whatever it took to create more income in my business. So I needed to create about 16 more clients in the space of two months if I was gonna get into this mastermind. And I remember thinking that it was a crazy goal, like insane number of people to create. Like, I had only worked with maybe like five people the whole year, and it was August, and I was like, okay, I'm going to go after this goal like crazy, like I'm Michael Jordan.
So I actually have my actual thoughts in a note on my computer here that I'm gonna read to you of the exact thoughts that I was thinking at the time.
Like I would write them out and I would think them, and I would find evidence for them for why they were true, and I would completely believe them. This is the thought, the particular thoughts that I had. Because I'd ask, answered the question, what result do I want? I wanna get into the Mastermind. Who do I need to be? Michael Jordan. Now that I already am Michael Jordan, what do I believe? These are the exact thoughts. Okay.
"I am Michael Jordan. I was born for this. I know exactly what to do. I'll do whatever it takes. It's working. Clients are here. It's already done. The second I decide it's done, it's already done."
That is what I was thinking over and over and over. I was born for this. I know exactly what to do. Anytime something would come up, an obstacle, I'd be like, I was born for this. I knew exactly what to do to solve this. Even if I felt like I didn't, I'd be like, I know exactly what to do and here's why. And I would find evidence for why that was true. I believed wholeheartedly in these beliefs because I thought if Michael Jordan would believe them, then I'm going to believe them, because now I'm stepping into being him. I am stepping into the character, the identity of being Michael Jordan.
And then the other parts of that question, the third question are, well, what do I do? What do I eat? What do I wear? I would get up earlier in the morning than I ever have. My alarm would go off in the morning and I would just get up. The first thought that would come into my head would be like, I'm too tired. And then I remember that I was being Michael Jordan, and instantly I'd have the thought, Michael Jordan would do it.
He would get up and I got up. It's almost like it took no energy from me at all because I would just step into being that Michael Jordan version of me, and then it would, I would just be compelled into taking the action that I needed to take, and I was so clear on what actions I needed to take inside my business. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had it all mapped out. I knew what live streams I was gonna do. I knew what posts I was gonna make, I knew who, which people I needed to connect with. I grew in my Facebook group by thousands of people in a really short amount of time, just from stepping into this space of being Michael Jordan.
And in the end, I signed 16 clients in two months, and I got into the Mastermind a year before I thought I could. This is the version of me who a year before that, didn't even know how to create like three clients in a year. And now I could create 16 clients. I signed 10 clients in one month during that two month period. So I did like six in one month and then 10 the next month, 10 clients in one month, which for me was insane at the time. Absolutely insane.
And I got into the Mastermind. And I remember being on fire, not for getting into the Mastermind, but just for thinking "I know how to hit any goal I set from now on." It felt like I had like the magic. Actually, this is another one of my favorite thoughts that I remember thinking at the time, is I am my own magic pill.
That is one of my favorite thoughts, cause I think so often I'm looking for like a magic pill outside of myself looking for the next thing that's gonna solve it and like searching for something on YouTube or Googling it or doing whatever. I am my own magic pill. I know exactly what to do.
These thoughts would never have come to me if I was taking action from the version of me that I had always been taking action from. I had spent years in my business, two years in my business. I spent only doing it part-time because I couldn't afford to do it full-time. I wasn't creating enough clients. Then suddenly I step into being Michael Jordan, and then from that moment on, I had always had a full-time business. And since then, for like the last two years, I've always had a full-time business and now it's a six figure business because I was completely convinced into the energy of the person that I needed to be, and I wasn't taking action from the version of me who had no idea what to do. I was taking action from the version of me who knew exactly what to do and how to hit the goal, and I did.
So I want you to ask yourself right now, what result do I want? Who do I need to be to create that result? And now that I already am that person, what do I believe? What do I do? What do I wear? What do I say? How do I respond to things? And I want you to method, act your way around your day every single day into that goal.
Just like Jacqueline Gates says, you're gonna create the set around you. You can actually move things in your house. How would like Michael Jordan do the dishes? How would Elle Woods handle this and that? How would Oprah do this? How would the confident version of me do this? How would my million dollar self handle this issue that I'm facing right now? What would she do or he do if they were in my position? Right?
That is your job every single day to ask yourself those questions. And once you've done that, once you know how to do that, you are set. You will always be able to hit your goals. There's gonna be times, right, of course, where you don't hit them in the exact timeframe that you're expecting. But if you follow this method, I am seriously convinced that there is not a goal that you cannot hit if you do this.
So, That's it. That's the second episode, and I look forward to talking with you in the next one.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggles so you can hit any goal you set.
Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.
1. How to Take Action
Nobody ever teaches you how to take action.
There’s no class at school on how to get yourself to execute the things you need to do.
This episode is the ultimate crash course.
In this episode, you’ll learn my three-step process for getting yourself to take action on your goals.
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Hey, it's Sarah Arnold-Hall, and you're listening to How to Take Action.
We have got to talk about what hustling really means, because I think hustling has been given a bit of bad press recently, and it's been kind of held responsible for burnouts, and working yourself into the ground, and working really long hours, and working harder than you ever have before. But, if you actually look up the dictionary definition of hustle, it doesn't mean any of those.
The Cambridge Dictionary definition of hustle is "to act quickly with energy." and I love this definition because when you think about it, we are so often doing the opposite. We're so often acting slowly with lethargy. We're doing anything but taking quick, energetic action, and that is my mission for this podcast.
I want this entire podcast to be a conversation around taking action quickly with energy. And the reason that this has become so important to me is because not only have I worked with a lot of clients around this issue, but I've also discovered and kind of noticed in the world that so many of our problems as a society, as a globe could be solved, if we knew how to get ourselves and others to take action. We have got the resources to solve climate change, to solve the hunger crisis, to solve all of the other social issues that we're facing and humanitarian issues, but we are not taking action on them.
And so I wanna start that conversation around, let's start with ourselves, take action on our own goals and on a global scale as well. Let's just begin. Let's dive in to our first episode today on How to Take Action . So I named this first episode How to Take Action, even though this entire podcast is about how to take action, because I really want to give a bit of a first kind of crash course in how to get yourself to take action.
So there are three steps that I'm gonna teach you today, and before we can really dive into those steps, we first have to know why you're not taking action in the first place. So I want you to think about a goal or a dream that you have, right? Something big, something exciting that you haven't been working on enough.
Maybe you haven't been working on it at all, or maybe you've been doing a bit, but you haven't really been taking the action that's going to get you the results that you want.
There are five things that stop people from taking action, and as I go through these, I want you to think about what your goal is and which one of these, pops up at you as the reason why you're not taking action. Now, it could be all five of the things, but it's likely that there's one or two that are kind of the main ones that are holding you back. So each of these five things that I'm about to share with you that are stopping you from taking action are actually emotions, because when it comes down to it, our emotions are what drive our action.
It completely depends on how you feel as to whether or not you're gonna do stuff. If you don't feel like doing it, you're not gonna do it. I've come up with these based on hundreds of sessions that I've done with my clients on getting them to take action towards their goals. And I think these are five universal ones.
So here they are: confusion, overwhelm, self-doubt, fear, and lethargy. Those are the five key emotions that are stopping you. I wanna quickly explain a little bit more in detail about how you know which one you're facing.
So each of these emotions is coming from a belief that you have, and so you know that you're confused if you are believing the thought: "well, I don't know what to do," or "I don't know where to start."
And you know, you're feeling overwhelmed if you're thinking the thought: "there's just too much to do" or "this is too intense," or something along the lines of that.
You know that you're feeling self-doubt if you're believing, something like, it's usually an open-ended question, like, "Can I really do this? Am I good enough?"
You know, you're experiencing fear if you're stuck in the 'what ifs'. "What if this goes wrong? What if that happens? What if I succeed in X, Y, Z, and what if I fail? And A, B, C."
And, you know that you're in lethargy, if you're thinking the and believing the thought, "I just don't wanna do it. I don't feel like doing it. This is boring." That's how you know.
So figure out which one of those five it is for you.
Here's the thing about these emotions, they are self-reinforcing. So if you're feeling overwhelmed and you don't take, and you see no progress, you're gonna feel even more overwhelmed. So you kind of end up going down this downward spiral of procrastination.
The more that you feel those emotions, the more you procrastinate, and the more you procrastinate, the more you feel those emotions. And so we have to get you out of that. How do we do that? It starts by changing and shifting your emotion, and in order to do that, you're gonna be having to think new beliefs because the ones that you're having right now, like there's too much to do, this is too hard.
All of those beliefs that you have right now, they are creating the unhelpful emotions that are definitely stopping you from taking action. You have to change your emotions by changing your beliefs.
So, there are three steps to getting yourself to take action, to stop procrastinating, to get in this new outward spiral.
And, the first thing is to figure out the opposite emotion of the one that you're currently experiencing right now.
So if you are experiencing confusion, figure out for you what the opposite emotion is. And there's no right answer to this. Everyone's gonna have different answers. The opposite of confusion might be clarity, and the opposite of lethargy might be motivation or determination.
That's the first step. Just find the opposite emotion. The second step is to identify the belief that would cause that emotion. If it is, let's say, it's calm. Maybe the belief would be, "I can handle this," and you don't have to believe it yet. You just have to identify it.
So the first step is to figure out what the opposite emotion is. The second step is to find the belief that would create that emotion. And the third step is to find evidence for that belief. I used to think that a belief was just a thought that you think over and over and over, so you just do affirmations in the mirror. Let's say you come up with a belief like, "I can handle this," or "I'm good enough."
You just say it a hundred times in the mirror every morning and you journal it out and you make an affirmation tape to play while you're driving to work. That's not actually how beliefs are created. A belief is not just a thought you think over and over. A belief is a thought that you have got evidence for.
We need evidence to create the belief in order to feel the emotion, in order to get ourselves to take action. Don't even worry if the thought that you've come up with isn't even true yet. All you have to do is find enough evidence to believe it until it actually becomes true, because you take action and you see it as a result.
That's it. Those are the three steps. You have to find the opposite emotion. You have to identify the belief that would make you feel that emotion, and then you have to find the evidence for it.
All right. That's it. That is our podcast for today. I am so excited that we are done with our first episode, and I look forward to continuing the conversation with you in the next episode, and I will see you there.
Hey, if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, you're gonna love being coached by me. We're gonna solve your specific action taking struggle. So you can hit any goal you set. Just go to saraharnoldhall.com to sign up.