My Thoughts/Your Thoughts #4 — Do it now!

The John Maxwell Podcast

The fourth blog in the My Thoughts/Your Thoughts series is going to cover the latest John Maxwell podcast called “Candid Conversations: Do it now”.

John Maxwell focuses on leadership and his books have sold more than 19 million copies. I have always enjoyed listening to his podcasts.

This particular podcast’s title is “Do it now”, which I have tried to implement in my own life. The main challenge I have with “Doing it now” is that there is always an element of risk involved. An example of this is that I have an opportunity to do a course that could change my life. This course costs $600. I have decided to “Do it now” but I am risking that money and time. The question is, what do I miss out on if I don’t do the course or if I delay taking it?

I listened to this podcast just after I made this decision.

Don’t wait until it feels right

“The difference between winners and whiners is that winners do what is good until it feels rights, whiners want to feel good before they know what is right” — John Maxwell

John says that if we are battling to make a decision we should ask this question — “Am I not taking action because it is best for the situation or am I not taking action because I am not comfortable yet?”. John says that there is a chance that you will never feel comfortable making a decision but that isn’t a good reason not to make it. He believes that it’s a fact of life that most of us should move before we feel like moving.

The best leaders see the ‘big picture’ and they see things before others see them. Today the key leadership advantage is the later. But there is so much information available that seeing the ‘big picture’ isn’t as big an advantage as it used to be. Even more than this, the real advantage is not only seeing things first but taking action.

John uses the example of an Olympic sprinter. It is easy to beat that runner in a race if you are given an 80m start in a 100m race. If you can see things before others then you can beat more established, and perhaps even better, competitors.

My thoughts:
My basic weakness is that I am prone to fear. It is difficult for me to make decisions because I see the things that can go wrong. What I have tried increasingly to do is to make a decision even if I am not 100% sure it will work or even if I am not comfortable making the decision.

In my example in the introduction, I mentioned that I am spending $600 on a course. This is a lot of money to me. Is there a potential reward in me doing the course now? Yes. Okay, let me do it!

Your thoughts?
Do you make decisions that involve risk? Do you make decisions before it feels right? Have you had successes doing this?

Success tied to action

“I believe there is no success unless it’s tied to action” — John Maxwell

Whenever you seek success it has to be equated with action. Failure can also be the result of action — there is a risk here — but nothing moves until you move. If you wait for things to move towards you, and you are not moving, then you are going to get what happens to life. But if you begin to act, and to move, then good things begin to happen. If you move forward you get to see and hear about opportunities that you haven’t before. We tend to attract things when we move forward because we see what we are looking for.

The only way resources will come to you is if you are moving. John Maxwell says: “As you act, you attract”.

My thoughts:
I can see what John is saying here but I haven’t really found this to be true — yet. I have moved forward with a few initiatives, but I can’t say I have noticed resources coming to me. What I do believe 100% is that nothing will happen by itself. I need to be strong and brave to continue to make action-orientated decisions.

Your thoughts?
Have you found that when you have moved forward, made a business decision, that you have had things open up for you? What is the percentage of good and bad decisions you have made? Have you missed opportunities because you didn’t act?

Standing still is not the answer

“If you don’t act on what you know then you will never get what is potentially yours.”

– John Maxwell

John says that life rewards action! The world is changing so fast that to be successful you must be there first.

My thoughts:
I think one of the challenges I have had in the past is that when I have decided to do something I find that there are already lots of people doing the same thing.

As mentioned, I am spending money to do this course. Already there are 1,000 people, across the world, who are part of this movement that I am joining and 50+ people who have done the certification. Even in South Africa, where I live, there are a handful of people who have become certified. This might not sound like a lot of people, and it isn’t, but the market I want to enter is very small. I am sure that in 6–12 months the number of people certified would have increased exponentially.

Why I am telling you this is because now I am one of the early people taking the certification. When the opportunities emerge, and I believe they will, then being certified will enable me to take advantage of them. If I don’t take action and get certified now, then the number of people certified will increase and the moment of opportunity will have passed.

Your thoughts?
Have you been successful in being an early adopter? Have you enjoyed “first-mover” advantage? Has it worked for you when you have waited to see if things are successful before joining?

Conclusion

As a Christian I read in the Bible all the accounts of people who have acted before they have known all the facts. Quite often, what people in the Bible were asked to do looked very risky, such as Noah building an ark in a rain-starved country.

If I want to be successful in life — have a life of value — then I need to be a person who takes action. After I have evaluated the pros and cons of making a decision, I need to learn to be bold and take the leap. Of course, it is also incredibly important to decide not to do something. Deciding not to do something is also taking action.

Are you going to listen to this podcast? What are your thoughts on doing things now? Do you have a story to share on when you have acted decisively?

If you would like to reach out to me then please do so at my email address lancepeppler@gmail.com or you can go to my website at www.lancepeppler.com.

The views in this blog are my own and do not represent the views of the company I work for.