Action Without Direction Is Better Than No Action

Take this post as an example.

I haven't had a sudden moment of inspiration to write something, I am just writing. In line with my commitment to write something every day, I know that taking action and writing something - writing anything at all - is more productive and useful than sitting back and waiting for an idea or direction.

Of course, direction is important to make sure you're going the right way, but more often than not it is better to do something than to wait for that direction. Even if your action means you're taking things forward in slightly the wrong way, at least you are taking things forwards, and if you need to adjust your direction in the future at least you're not starting from scratch and have done some good.

At work, this can sometimes manifest itself in a belief that you need someone's permission to do something that you know is right and will help, but are concerned others will not understand or support you. Many times I've heard great ideas that never went anywhere because the person with the idea was waiting for some permission or other that in reality they didn't need. Whilst at work you do sometimes need to be careful due to the political environment in which you work, often it is better to act and ask permission than ask permission and risk never taking action.

Not sure what you should be doing? Try doing something - doing anything - just to get something done - and you'll probably find that you will find your way, and if not at least you can say you've done something...

End Every Day With A Success

This is a really simple and obvious psychological trick that can massively help how good you feel about every day in your life.

The idea is simple: No matter how bad your day has been, always end it with a success.

You define success

Let's say you've just had the worst day of your life. Everything that could have gone wrong, has gone wrong. You get to the end of the day and think to yourself: there is nothing good about this day.

This is where you need to stop.

Step back and think of one thing you can do that is positive and could be seen as a success. Even if it's really small, just something that you will be able to look back on and think "well at least I did that..."

Even if you have something really big on your plate that you know you should do right now, but also know there's no chance you're going to get it finished in time: you're going to fail, it's all going to come crashing round your ears and you're going to suffer the consequences.

You still need to stop.

This horrible situation is out of your control, so make the decision to do no more on it today. You have to stop for the day at some point anyway, so stop and think of that one thing you're going to do that will be successful.

Maybe you're at home and you just want to get one small house chore done that will save time tomorrow- like washing the pots, or washing some clothes. Do it now, and know that you ended the say on a success.

Or you could be at work, and you can look at your long list of things to do and pick off one thing that you can get done now, that will be a success. It may be small, but at least you can leave the office with one success. Send that email helping someone out, or complete that little admin task you've been putting off but still needs doing. Get it done - and you have succeeded.

You can define what that small success is, but make it small enough to be easily achievable as the last thing you do that day.

You'll be amazed

Just this small thing can make a massive difference on your life.

You will never finish a day with that sinking feeling of dread and disappointment. Yes, you still have a load of other things to worry about, but at least you ended on a small high.

In time, you will find that the feeling of success will translate to clearer thoughts and more success elsewhere, including on those big horrible tasks you're struggling with.

This small technique will not solve all your problems, but it will help, and will make you feel better.

Give it a go today!

____________________

A couple of related links

As always when I write about anything, I do a quick search on the subject first.

If you found this article interesting, here are a couple of other articles that may also be of use to you:

• http://www.gibsreview.co.za/home.asp?pid=11&toolid=2&reviewid=388&itemid=391
• http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Start-and-End-your-Day-Right

One Way To Never Break A Routine

Routines can be a great way to help achieve things that take time and effort, like a new level of fitness or a product that will take a long time to create and can be produced through regular, small contributions.

Whenever we start a new routine, we always have a sense of hope. There is a target we are aiming for, a vision of a better place that we will get to if we stick to it.

The trouble is, it takes work. Even with our best intentions, a routine is something we have to do, consistently and without fail for it to be a routine.

We make and break our own routines

Take a daily routine, like doing a small amount of exercise every day. Or even a weekly one.

The most common cause of a routine like this breaking is missing just one day. We miss that one time and think that we've broken the routine, so what's the point now? It's broken - we're going to have to start from scratch again to get it going.

But is a routine really broken by a small thing like this?

The answer is no.

Routines are an artificial creation, they're just in our mind.

We decide what our routine is, how often we're going to do something, how we measure our own success. So you've missed a day, so what? Okay, so it may "feel" like the routine's broken, but it hasn't. It's only one day.

Say you miss three days and pick up again where you left off. It's still the same routine, you've just had a bit of a break. It's not broken, you've not gone back to the beginning at all. It could be that you've not made as much progress as you would have liked, or your fitness has regressed slightly, but don't let that stop your routine - it's all in your mind. Just start where you left off and continue.

If your routine is a personal one, the only person you are really accountable to is you - so it's up to you whether you beat yourself up about it and stop (which doesn't really help anyone), or just pick yourself up and continue (which is surely a more constructive way forwards).

Some people might suggest that this is somehow deluding yourself, but I disagree. We're not denying that we've missed a few days, and we're not saying we're happy about that. What we're saying is that despite missing those days, we are going to continue regardless. We will persist and succeed regardless of setbacks - the routine is not broken, it has been on hold but will continue.

Have you ever broken a good routine and never started it again? Maybe now's the time to pick it back up. It was only on hold, after all...