LEAP into Action

The new year is already going along nicely & we are into the second week. As my practice I usually take time out on a retreat in these early days to reflect & be grateful for the past year, set new goals & targets for the new year, get direction from God on things to do in the year & in what area(s) to do them.

In this frame of mind, I also do a quick check with my various mentors just to ensure that I am still aligned & in sync with them. While doing this, I caught a post by Micheal Hyatt about “How to Leverage the L.E.A.P. Principle for Big Results” & it explains how you can beat the “Law of diminishing intent” in 4 simple steps & I will like to share this with you.

At many times like this, we all start with a blank page wherein we list our goals & targets for the new year, make our new year resolutions & start all excited as we want to do better this year than the previous one. But as the year tags along day by day, some of us loose that drive & by the end of  the first quarter we realise that we’ve fallen off the wagon & back to square one.

LAW OF DIMINISHING INTENT

Over the years, I’ve learnt about the Law of diminishing returns in Economics & I’ve taught about the Law of diminishing productivity, but never really looked at the act of procrastination as the “Law of diminishing intent“. As the diagram below shows, the level of your intention & excitement to achieving your goals & dreams are very high at the beginning, but they tend to reduce as time progresses & given enough time, it gets to a point that those intentions actually disappear completely provided you don’t LEAP into action.

Jim Rohn,an American entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker firstly noticed that the longer you wait to take action, the less likely you will be to take it & then coined the term. He is a 100% right & I believe most of us can identify with this, I for one am familiar with this feeling & looked for a solution.

Many of us have God given talents laying dormant within us that needs to be stirred up, there are skills that is uniquely in us that the world is waiting to experience & enjoy; books to be written, businesses to start, innovations to create, problems to solve etc. It’s time to LEAP into action.

L.E.A.P

LEAP is an acronym that highlights the 4 steps required to get big results & achieve those goals. Let’s quickly run through them:

Lean into the change with expectancy.

The identification of what is required to achieve that goal becomes the trigger. Have the end in mind, zoom into the future to see the reward of that change, see yourself at the book launch, in that dress size you’ve always wanted,etc. The mind is the battlefield, once you can see it done in your mind, then you will have it done. Heb 12:1-3 (MSG), because of the Joy that was set before Jesus, he endured the cross.

Engage with the concept until you get some level of clarity.

Most of us don’t engage with our set goals & objectives long enough to get clarity. We need to think things through & understand WHAT we want to achieve & WHY it is important, don’t  just let the emotions run wild & cloud your mind, you need to settle down, seek for more information so as to get a level of clarity. Prov 20:18 (MSG), Form your purpose by asking for counsel.

Activate & do something – anything.

You need to start!! Just make a move.There is no need to wait until you have all of the information before you start, many of us get caught up in this loop, we’ve already got some information about what we need to achieve our goals, we are all motivated, all focused & clear about it, but we are afraid to start. This is essentially a fear of failure.

It’s like driving a car in the middle of the night on a long journey, you don’t wait until your lights can see all the way to the destination, you start moving with the few meters of light ahead, you only need the light for the next step. Don’t be afraid of failure, it’s part of the journey.  Ecc 11:4 (NLT) Just do it!!

Pounce & do it NOW!!!

Once you’ve determined your next step, take it. Don’t wait. Waiting feels safe, but waiting kills dreams. William G.T. Shedd says “A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for”, ships were meant to take on the oceans & see the world. 2Cor 6: 2 (NKJV) Take that step NOW!!

On a personal note, today marks 2 years that I started blogging & this LEAP principle helped me a great deal. It was just a thought in my mind, then I got encouraged by someone who listened to me talk for a few minutes, so in January 2015, I took it up as a challenge, got clarity as regards what I wanted to do & in what specific areas. I then engaged people that had experience blogging  for information & guidance & with a little confidence I just started.

I fulfilled that dream ( activated that talent of writing) & it’s given me the privilege to reach out to about 10,000 people across some of my social media platforms. I’ve met interesting people, I’ve received help from them as well & the aim now is to keep it going & to even evolve it further.

This is to encourage you!! You can achieve that dream of yours if only you would LEAP into action.

This is my snippet, I AM SHALOMESQ!!!