Success is doing tiny actions at a time

Based on those realisations, we made some cardinal decisions, goals to work towards, going forward and we swiftly commenced on these. Well, I hope we did.

The new year rolled in with hope for a return to what most of us would refer to as “normal” given the roll-out of the Covid-19 vaccine but we all know that “normal” has changed, shifted, and even left for good for many, in various ways.

It means that we have to change, shift or leave many of the ways in which we perceive, think, process, and take on life.

Sadly, this is not the point at which I tell you what to do, how, when, and with whom to do that. Why not? I am a coach; I should know or have an idea. Well, I don’t know what you need to do exactly but I’ll tell you how you should do it.

You should do it every day. A little bit of it. Chip away at it every single day, no matter what you decided that you were going to achieve this year. If you haven’t done as much as you’d hoped since the year begun, you know that we are nearly halfway through. If you don’t get on it, the year’s only going to keep wearing on.

No one is coming to wave some wand to magically produce a secret or trick to get you there faster, easier, and in as painless a way as possible - a trick or secret. If only someone could tell you the trick to help you arrive at your desired goals without your commitment to them.

From wearing your mask, distancing as much as possible, keeping food on the table for your family, waking up earlier to do what you need to provide for them, hanging on to your business, job, getting out of debt, losing weight, and everything in-between.

We all want to go from good to better to great no matter what limitations the difficulty of the time we live in at this moment and if anyone could promise us that, we would give anything. Well, almost. If that's what you're hoping as you read this, I'm afraid that the rest of your read will be rather underwhelming.

While I agree that there may be several quick fixes presented to you every day, I suggest that those blow away as quickly as our new year resolutions leave an avalanche of incomplete projects and unrealised goals in their wake.

This is the reason why most "secrets to success" books, movies, programmes, seminars, and whatever else are hyped up with exciting marketing pandemonium do not deliver on their promise.

Unfortunately, we quickly buy into the hype. Soon after unpacking the so-called secret, I am willing to bet that most people experience cognitive dissonance. Is that it? What an anti-climax!

Perhaps if they had known that that was it, they wouldn't have bought into it, right? Wrong. They would have and will buy into more "success secrets".

Stop buying. The secret is that there is no secret. What you have is the power of doing tiny little things today. And doing them again tomorrow. After a week, increasing your speed a little.

Keep doing that as well as another tiny action and repeat this process adding on tiny little actions every few weeks until you have several of them in the various advancement areas until you gain the momentum required to achieve the success that you desire.

There is no quick fix. The thing is; very little is immediately altered using this method. You probably won't even notice an iota of change in the first couple of weeks or months. If you're a quick-fix hunter, that's when you throw in the towel and resume the never-ending hunt for “secrets” and “magical” solutions.

Stick with it. Keep at those tiny little seemingly insignificant actions. And then one day surprisingly not too far from now, when you achieve your goals, people start to ask what your "secret" is.

Unfortunately, most people who ask the question aren't interested in your truth. And that has less to do with the experience you'll be sharing with them and more to do with their conditioning. The conditioning that makes doing tiny little actions every day for the long haul a monumental feat.

The conditioning that makes it almost an impossibility to develop the habits that bring about the changes and improvements we truly want. Want? Yes, "want". Herein lies the real issue.

Most of us don't know what we want. If and when we do, we cannot articulate in the way that compels our wants to come to us because we have it hard-wired in us that it is selfish and even arrogant to want anything. The truth is that needs alone are not enough to ignite the fire in our bellies to push ourselves hard enough to achieve great success.

I developed the habit of unapologetically defining my wants and this here is what I want for you right now: not because the year is quickly slipping through our fingers or because I love you so much but because it's yours and you deserve it.

I want you to reverse the conditioning that keeps you out of touch with what you really want. Once you get that out of the way, Developing the little actions that bring it to you will cease to be a challenge. Tiny little actions taken every single day really do work. The unlimited power of habit is as immense as we make it.

What do you really want? Are you doing what is required to achieve it every day?