The Secret to Taking Action

0:06Welcome to today's episode of the Mindset Mentor podcast, the number one mindset podcast in the entire world. I'm your host Rob Dial. If you have not yet done so, hit that subscribe button so you never miss another podcast episode. Today, we're going to be talking about how to take action, how to do the thing that you are resisting so much and actually doing. We're going to talk about doing what needs to be done in order to create the life that you want. Because really, if you actually think about it, life is not hard. You are where you are right now and there is a place in the future that you want to be.

0:42And the only way to go from where you are now to where you want to be is to get your ass up and do what needs to be done. But why don't we do it? And so I have a, I actually found this. I was trying to figure out where it came from. I don't know who actually wrote it. I found it on a couple of different websites. One of them was strangestloop.io. Another one was a guy named Gareth Williams. And it's this thing called Doing the Thing. And I'm gonna read it to you. It's an article. that I think is perfect for what we're going to talk about today. And here's what he says. Preparing to do the thing isn't doing the thing.

1:16Scheduling time to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Making a to-do list of the thing isn't doing the thing. Telling people you're going to do the thing isn't doing the thing. Messaging friends who may or may not be doing the thing isn't doing the thing. Writing a banger tweet on how you're going to do the thing Isn't doing the thing Hating on yourself for not doing the thing Isn't doing the thing Hating on other people Who have done the thing Isn't doing the thing Hating on obstacles in the way of doing the thing Isn't doing the thing Fantasizing of all of the adoration you'll receive Once you do the thing Isn't doing the thing Reading about how to do the thing Isn't doing the thing reading about how other people did the thing is not doing the thing.

2:08Reading this essay isn't doing the thing. The only thing that is doing the thing is doing the thing. So when you look at that, what the hell does that mean? It means that all too often, we know what we need to do to be successful. We do, but a lot of times we aren't doing it. A lot of the work that I do, so obviously I have this podcast and obviously I have a business where I teach people how to grow their coaching businesses. And then I obviously have something called Mindset Mentor University, which is a weekly call. And then I also consult business owners as well. I've worked with a lot of business owners over the years, like a lot, thousands of business owners over the years.

2:47And it is very obvious to me, after working with a lot of business owners, why 65 % of businesses fail within their first 10 years. It's extremely obvious because it's the business owner's mind. The business is always a reflection of the business owner. And if the business owner's mind is not in the right place, then obviously the business is not going to be in the right place. They're not going to do the right things. They're not going to manage people correctly. And they're going to hold themselves back in some sort of way. And all too often what we do is we get caught up pretending we're doing the thing versus actually doing the thing.

3:24Like the example that I always give if you've been listening to this podcast for a long time is you say, hey, you know what I'm going to do? I'm gonna I'm gonna train for a marathon I've you know I'm 45 years old I've never ran a marathon I've always thought it'd be great to run a marathon I'm gonna do that and so what do you do you go online and you research what are the best running shoes and you go and you start to see okay is it Adidas is it Nike is it Brooks what are the what's the best running shoes what's the best what running style do I have and so then you go to like a running store then you hop on a treadmill and they watch you run and they say, hey, you actually overpronate.

4:02You need these types of shoes. You're like, okay, cool. 150 bucks for these pairs of shoes. Cool. You got your shoes. And then you're like, you know what I need to do? I need to get some shorts. I need to make sure I have some shorty short running shorts that I don't get my way so I can be faster when I'm running. And then I need to research some shirts and I need to go on YouTube and see what the best shirts are. And then I need to go on Amazon and buy those shirts. And then what I should probably do is I I should probably go on YouTube and look up the biggest runners that are on YouTube. Maybe they'll teach me how to run better.

4:30And you know what I should probably do? I should probably read some articles. You know what I should probably do? I should probably subscribe to Runners Magazine so that I can read about runners so that I start becoming a better runner. And now all of those things, do all of those things help in some sort of way? Sure. I'm sure they help in some sort of way. But are they the most important thing? are they doing the thing? No. Going and researching running shoes and running shorts and shirts and looking up runners on YouTube and reading articles and subscribing to magazines are not doing the thing.

5:04The only thing that's doing the thing is to put on your shoes, get your ass outside, and going for a run. That's it. But what we do is we, it's really the difference between being busy versus being productive. Have you ever had a day where you're like, go, go, go, you're working, you're working, you're working. And then at the end of the day, you sit down and you're like, God, I was busy all day and I don't feel like I got anything done. You don't feel like you checked off any of the big things on your list. I've had those days before. And the reason why is because you're doing things, but you're not doing the most important things.

5:39You're keeping yourself busy versus actually being productive and being productive means moving the needle, right? So It's like, we've all done this before. We make a to-do list. It's got 27 things on the to-do list. And then you have all of these things on the to-do list that some of them are extremely, extremely important. And because those things are so important and you know that they're such a big, you know, they might be such a big boulder to move that you're like, well, let me get a couple of things crossed off my schedule or my to-do list so I feel better. And so what do you do instead?

6:09You decide that you're going to empty the dishwasher because empty the dishwasher is there and you can check this thing off real quick. And so what you do is instead of going for the big things, the important things, the most, what you do is you go for the things that'll check off the most things off your to-do list. When really that's not that important. And we will be right back. And now back to the show. Maybe, yeah, sure. You do have to empty the dishwasher. Yeah, you got to empty the dishwasher. Is that the most important thing that you could do today? No. So what are the most important things that you do today?

6:42When you look at that to-do list, do you circle number one, number two, and number three and do nothing else until you get those things done? Because those things are the things that need to be done. Those are doing the things. Don't trick yourself and act like you're doing what needs to be done when in reality, you're just keeping yourself busy. And one way to really, and this is something I've been using for years, one of my very first mentors used to say this to me all the time because, you know, when I was, when I was new in sales, I used to do this all the time. I used to act like I was busy.

7:13And so, you know, we would have these things called phone jams and we would go into the office and we make a hundred phone calls. And we had all, I had tons and tons of papers with all of these different numbers and stuff. And so I would spend like two hours, I'd go in to go make phone calls. And I spent like two hours organizing my list. And my manager was like, what have you been doing the past two, two hours? And I was like, well, I was organizing my list. Cause I want to make sure I'm ready to make some calls. And he's like, listen, making calls is the only thing that matters. That's all you got to do.

7:38I don't care if your list is organized. I don't care if it's disorganized, just make a hundred phone calls. That's what it comes down to. And so the question he used to always ask me and that I've literally brainwashed into myself for the past 17 years is to ask yourself this question is what I'm doing right now, getting me closer to or further from my goals. don't bullshit yourself be honest you know looking at shoe reviews is not going to make you a better runner looking at shoe reviews is not going to help you finish a marathon sure you need good shoes i'm not going to lie to you in that but do that another time what you need to do is you need to get up you need to go for a run that's what you need to do if you're a business owner doing all of the research, some research might be necessary.

8:24But in reality, what really needs to be done, how do you get more revenue into your business? If you're a salesperson, sure, researching your client might be something that you could do. I guess you could say your prospect, right? Researching a prospect could be something that you could do. Going and actually looking at the product and getting better knowledge of the product and more product conviction. Sure, those things are important. But what's the most important thing? Making the freaking phone call to talk to a prospect or knocking on the next door to make sure that you talk to the next prospect.

8:56And so what we do is we try to trick ourselves and it's very subtle sometimes. And you've gotta be very clear, is what I'm doing right now getting me closer to or further from my goals? If my goal was to make 100 phone calls today and that's what I need to do and I'm sitting there and I'm looking at the different product and the product numbers and I'm going, well, I need to make sure that I am 100 % sure on my product. That's not the most important thing. What's the most important thing? talking to another person, getting some revenue into the business. And really what it comes down to is you have to understand that in this life, and at some point in time, hopefully we all wake up and we ought to be an adult.

9:35And we have to realize with being an adult is that nobody, no one is coming to save you. Nobody gives a damn about your success more than you do. And so if you're waiting for like just magic to happen, it ain't going to happen. Sometimes you You just got to pull up your big boy and girl britches and you just got to do the thing that you got to do. You just got to do the thing. If it's going to be done, you have to do it. You have to make a decision that you are fed up with where you currently are, even if your life isn't that bad, but you're just like, it's not my full potential. You have to make the decision of I am done with where I currently am.

10:12You're fed up with living up to 50 % of your potential and being mediocre and fitting in with everybody else. You're fed up with not bringing your full self to every single thing that you do. You're fed up with letting your fears and your limiting beliefs that don't even actually truly exist in reality. They only exist in your head. But you're fed up with letting those things hold you back and stop you from taking the action that you need to. And when I say you have to make the decision, what I mean by making the decision is ultimately that you need to consciously make the decision that you're going to kill off your old self and there is no going back.

10:52If you've listened to this podcast for a while, I've said this multiple times, the root word, when you look at the word for decision is decadere. And decadere actually means to cut off. And that means to cut off all other options. When you make a decision, I think the problem is a lot of people are like, yeah, I'm going to make the decision to grow my business. And then you decide to start a business and then you start doing other things. Or maybe you have a plan B just in case this business doesn't succeed. No, when you say decision, when you mean cut off, means, you know, let's go ahead and quote Eminem, success is my only motherfucking option, failure's not.

11:30There is no other thing that I'm going to do except for this thing until I succeed. That is the only way that you will get what you truly want out of life is when you put 100 % of yourself into whatever it is that you wanna do. Even if it's growing a business, if it's being the best husband you could be, if it's being the best mother that you could be, you've got to bring 100 % of yourself to the thing that you want to master. And you've got to burn the ships. And that's what they mean by the decision to cut off, to cut off all of the options. There's the phrase, the story of the Spanish conqueror who came over to, I guess it was the US or Central America, whatever it was, and he could notice that his shipmates, the people that were on his ship, they were just not really in it.

12:16And they were just kind of like thinking about turning around. And so when they landed on shore, he said, burn the ships because they're wooden ships. Burn the ships. Because when you burn the ships, you can't turn around. You can't go back to Spain. You have to decide it's either success or death. That's really what it comes down to. And so you've got to have this decision in your mind of I'm going to do the thing. I'm not going to keep messing with myself, you know, by scheduling out. And, you know, some people that are like, oh, I'm an over thinker. I like to over plan. And so I schedule and then I schedule my scheduling time and then I schedule for my scheduling for my scheduling time and they just schedule and schedule and plan and plan.

12:55And then they make a to do list and then they tell all of these people, oh, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to start this business. You know, I'm going to message my friends and tell them I'm going to start this business. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to put out an awesome tweet and tell people about how I'm starting this business. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to create an Instagram story and I'm going to talk about how I'm going to start this business. None of that is actually starting the business. You're not. It's really what it is more than anything else is just mental masturbation.

13:20That's what you're doing. It's just mental masturbation. You're not taking any actual physical action to move you closer to the goals of what you're trying to create in yourself and the life that you're trying to create. And then so what do we do? Oh my gosh, I get so down on myself and I guilt myself and I shame myself for not doing the thing that I need to be doing. Hating on yourself is not doing the thing. it ain't stop doing it just do the freaking thing already hating on other people who are already successful oh they must have screwed people over oh you know what they probably come from a rich family oh you know and the making up all of these excuses hating on other people is also not doing the thing looking at all of the obstacles and being like oh my gosh it's just all of these obstacles are just so stupid i'm going to hate on all the obstacles that's also not doing the thing Thinking about how amazing your life is going to be and how you're going to have all these people that are going to be like, oh my gosh, I can't believe she's so successful, she's doing so well, and fantasizing about all of the adoration you're going to get from it, that's not doing the thing either.

14:20Sitting down and thinking, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do some research on other people who have done the thing. I'm going to read some books on how they've done the thing. That's not doing the thing. The only thing that is doing the thing is getting your ass up and actually taking the action that you need to. And so I want you to understand, don't bullshit yourself. You've gotta be honest. Am I doing the thing I need to be doing to get me closer to my goals? Is what I'm doing right now getting me closer to or further from my goals? If it is getting you closer to your goals and it is doing the thing, then just continue doing it.

14:52But if it's anything else, if it's not doing the thing, oh yeah, you know what? I'm just trying to cross off on how to do this. You know what? I'm doing too much research instead of actually taking the correct action to bring revenue into my business. Anything other than doing the thing, You need to stop doing and do some other time. Schedule your time out to take the action that you need to. Pull up your big boy and big girl britches. Do what needs to be done and take the action that you need to to build the life that you want. Because no one else is going to come and save you. And if you don't take this action, you're going to get to the end of your life.

15:19And you're going to regret that you didn't take the action that you needed to to create the life that you want for yourself, for your children, for everyone that you love. And you're just going to live regret. And that's not what you want. I promise you that. doing the thing is the only thing that is doing the thing. So that's what I got for you for today's episode. If you love this episode, please share it on the Instagram stories and tag me at Rob Dow Jr. With that, I'm going to leave the same way I leave you every single episode. Make it your mission to make someone else's.