Success comes when you take immediate action.

The holidays are past and the New Year is upon us as with all New Years it will be half gone before we know it. Hopefully you have chosen your goals, written them down, laid out a plan, and are ready to begin plowing ahead to your chosen destination.

One of my goals this year is weight loss and establishing healthier habits. I won’t go into the details of the plan here but I did want to share a different twist that I applied to this year’s goal. Typically when I set a goal I set a start date and usually that start date is to my advantage comfort wise. For example this year I had laid out my plan prior to the New Year celebrations so typically I would schedule the start date after the New Year began. This year when I completed the plan I committed to starting that day. As with most goals one of the key obstacles is my ability to procrastinate what I need to do and justify breaking the rules. This year I committed to taking immediate action towards my desired results.

Knowing myself this was a very important step as it set the standard for the path ahead. As I reflect on that day I can’t help but think about how that applies to many aspects of our daily personal and work lives. How often do we think about or talk about doing things, wait to start them for some truly great sounding reason, and then never actually implement the plan. I for one have a few examples that I will not share her for reasons of pride.

Whenever we plan for something it is important consciously and unconsciously to take immediate action towards our goal. This sets the bar for the days ahead by showing a real commitment to that goal. Whether it is calling for appointments, doing more walk in presentations, getting healthier, getting more organized, or whatever it is that you need to accomplish as soon as you identify what it is take immediate steps forward to increase your odds of success.

This also applies to those moments when your mind is telling you to put off the task or trying to justify not doing it. That is the moment where immediate action is critical. This shows your subconscious that you are committed to reaching the goal and will not put it off. After several times this will develop the habit of immediate action which will help you in many areas of your daily life.

For those of you interested I am ahead of my goal and have lost six pounds in two weeks but most importantly I have exercised every day since I started. Now I need to take immediate action on setting some sales appointments which my mind is trying to convince me to put off since it is Friday!