What is your "action quotient"?

 

I recently had the pleasure of listening to a talk by the amazing and inspiring Francine Ward. Her personal story is a harrowing one of redemption and recovery from her earlier days as a drug addict, alcoholic, and prostitute. 

 

She has journeyed a long way to where she is today as a Georgetown-educated lawyer, author, and sought-after speaker. The remarkable thing about her story is that she attributes her recovery and her acheivements not to any huge epiphany or magical transformation. Instead, she said that has gotten where she is today by following a path of what she calls "esteemable acts", small actions or behavior changes that over time make a huge difference in building self-esteem and creating a successful, fulfilled life. Francine teaches that your behavior influcences your thinking and ultimately shapes your life.

 

Francine's ideas have spurred me to think quite a bit about my own life and about what actions I would like to be taking but currently aren't, for whatever reason. I thought about how we all spend so much time wishing for things to be different or worrying about our circumstances - If only a portion of that time and energy was spent out of our heads and into action, it could have such an impact on how things play out for us. So, I decided to make this month's Tune-Up about stretching ourselves to make small, positive behavior changes. What could be a better time than right now to take action?

How is everything going for you? Are there areas of your life you'd like to improve? Do you really need to find a different job? How are your relationships? Perhaps life is mostly okay but there are things you have been wanting to do that you've put off for a long time: digging into creative pursuits, making new friends, or taking an important vacation, for example. 

 

If we ask ourselves why we're not taking action to change things, we will often come up with "reasons" that seem very valid. The word excuse has a pejorative connotation and although I tend to not use it much, there may be no better word for the story we tell ourselves of why things can't change in our lives.

 

We all make excuses as to why new actions are not happening. "I work all day and then I'm too tired to do anything else", "I've tried that before and it didn't work", "Things aren't so bad", "Other people's needs come first", "It's not the right time to try that", "I'm too busy", "It's too much work". If any of these little mental phrases sound familiar to you, take notice! You may be avoiding actions that could make your life much better over time. If you're ready to stop avoiding and start being your own "action hero" try out these ideas:

 

Choose one area of your life to focus on for a behavior change and choose one very small and simple action that you can try for 2 weeks. Designate a buddy to help keep you accountable to the action you are implementing. Set up 3 or 4 telephone check-in dates with the buddy and mark them on your calendar. Email me after you've done the challenge to let me know what you are learning.