Why Am I Not Making Progress? 3 Steps To Motivate Into Action

Written by Mr.SelfDevelopment - 17 Comments
Categories: happiness, motivation, productivity tips, productivity tips, self improvement, success

Image courtesy of Chelsea Grainger
Are you progressing in life, or are you just treading water?  This is a brief article intended to motivate you beyond stagnation into purposeful action, once and for all.  These are the steps I use to get things done.

Almost everyday I go to the gym, and almost everyday I see people in the gym who are unfortunately making very little progress.  Although these individuals frequent the gym quite regularly, they are experiencing very little change in their bodies.  This is quite the misfortune.

Today I want to discuss this phenomenon and explain the steps that cause some people to progress, while others stagnate.

You Must Grow

The reality is, if you’re not going forward, you are going backwards.  I think it’s interesting that one of the definitions of stagnate, is to decline.

We know that if living things are not growing and developing, they are dying, and who wants to die before their time?

In order to move from “stuck” into “rapid progress” the following 3 steps are requisite:

Step 1: Decide How Your End Result Will Look and Commit to Achieve It

You have to see your end result clearly.  It is just as difficult to get to a place you can’t see, as it is to come back from a place you’ve never been.  When I ran track as a child, they told us to never look to the left or to the right, but always stay focused on the finish line.  You must see the port in the harbor to which you are headed.

Additionally, you must commit to the vision of what you want to achieve.  You must draw a line in the sand and confess that you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, before you will be able to go forward.  Nothing really happens until you get angry; nothing happens until you are tired of the pain.

Step 2: Simplify Your Life

When the lion tamer goes into the lion cage, he brings a pistol, a whip and a chair.  The chair is said to be the most efficient at controlling the beast.  Why is this?

When the bottom of the chair is pointed in the direction of the lion, the lion becomes unsure as to which leg to focus on, and begins to stagnate.

Don’t be like the lion with so many things to focus on that you can never make any progress.  Determine the critical steps needed for your success, and create the habit of performing only those steps everyday.  You must have laser focus; you can’t stroll to a goal.

Step 3: Act Now

Last, but never least, is to get into action today, because tomorrow never comes.  When you get into what you are calling tomorrow, you will rename it today.  Decide what your end result will be today, determine the critical steps needed to achieve it, and start performing those activities right now.

All of the self development material in the world is worthless, if we never act on it.  We’ve talked about progress long enough; it’s now time to apply what we know, so we may grow.

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Mr.SelfDevelopment is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain and the founder of MrSelfDevelopment.com.

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  • Tammy

    I love this article and the Lion example….You are right, I think simplification is one of the keys to life. Great article!

  • http://bethbridges.blogspot.com Beth Bridges

    Thank you for this clear, purposeful post.

    I agree that stagnation is really losing ground. Entropy always pulls us backwards. One of the sad realities of life is that we have to work at just staying in place, much less moving forward.

    I believe that step 2 is crucial for people who are trying to accomplish more because we continually add things to our plate. Maybe they are simple things (floss daily, get a bit of exercise) but the sheer number makes it a complicated juggling act.

    Still, we have to keep refining and tuning our routines so that we can use our brains to move forward.

    Thanks!

  • Claudiu

    Thanks for the article, I needed it… This article helped me to realize that I was making plans for a tomorrow and that tomorrow never was coming… Thanks

  • http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com Mr. Self Development

    Tammy, I also love the lion example, because focus is critical to goal achievement. If we can remain laser focused on a task, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. Often times we spread ourselves to thin to be effective; no one can ride two horses at the same time.

    Claudiu, you are right…tomorrow never comes!…”now” is the only time that there will ever be, the future is just an illusion…if you don’t do something “now” it will never get done…

  • Canadaprince

    Great article! Keep falling back if not act upon it. All the thinking in the world has no value until we take responsibility for ourselves and take our own actions.

  • http://www.timelessinformation.com Armen Shirvanian

    I agree that that lion example clearly hits the point. When we are confused or dumbfounded, our time is lost until we get back on track. This same time is not lost when others try to force us into doing something, as we are able to respond quickly.

    We have to be careful of becoming confused or unable to respond to something, as our time can fly away while we try to regroup. We have to maintain a foundation of focus so that external events don’t affect our efforts.

  • http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com Mr. Self Development

    Canadaprince…you’re right…that’s one of the main reasons I write….my message is really about motivating people to finally get into action…to stop talking, and to start doing….it’s all about execution…

    Armen, good point…”broken focus” will unravel every dream and every goal you have….

  • http://RechargeYourMind.com Tehseen | RechargeYourMind

    The Lion example was fascinating! I think the problem is that we want to do too many things and get confused and end up doing none of them!

  • http://www.mrselfdevelopment.com Mr. Self Development

    Tehseen…you’re spot on….every year I have one main goal that I’m focused on (just one)…there’s a quote, I can’t think of the author, but it goes….you can do anything, but not everything….I think it’s so true….thanks for taking time to comment…

  • http://SourcesOfInsight.com J.D. Meier

    There is a lot to be said for concentrated focus. Too little spread over too much or too long is not the same as concentrated focus to get over humps.

  • http://www.bustingloosefromthebusinessgame.com Vicente de la Fuente

    Hi MrSelfDevelopment,

    Your message is very inspiring. Motivating individuals how to do in action for a well-rounded being. Those three steps with inspiring samples are very important to gain more about personal development that could help to our fellowmen and to our country. We must execute now whatever our plans are!Be confident and take life seriously!

    I will bookmark your site for future reference.

    Thank you so much.

  • http://www.gerbus.ca/blog Christopher X Gerber

    Motivation can be very tricky for some, but you certainly have to “Act Now”. A lot of us find it easier simply to blame motivation for not doing things. If you sit there and really push yourself to find a way to motivate yourself, you will be sitting there. Instead, I recommend imagining a you that just does things and succeeds. You just act, like a good employee who knows what to do and just does it, later impressing the boss.

    I wrote a little something about it at http://www.gerbus.ca/blog/questioning_the_self/2009_07/motivation-how-not-to-wait/

  • http://enlightr.com/blog Craig

    Simplifying my life is something I need to do desperately >.

  • Dianne B.

    The article may be good, but is it necessary to have the top-naked woman pictured in this post?

    Since we’re talking about motivation and self-confidence, lets not push the idea that “women are objects of pleasure” — inadvertently or not — any further.

    Thanks!

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com Editor, Pick The Brain

    Hi Dianne…

    This is actually a Self-Portrait taken by a very talented young photographer named Chelsea Grainger. It is entitled “Growing Pains” – which I think represents the theme of this article very well. It really has nothing at all to do with women being objects of pleasure. But thank you for taking note and feeling passionate enough about it to drop us a line!

  • http://www.gerbus.ca/blog Christopher X Gerber

    Well, I’ll argue that what something has something to do with is entirely up to perception :)

  • Chelsea Grainger

    In no way is my photo supposed to have anything to do with women being objects. some people are more comfortable with showing skin i guess. My picture was supposed to represent growing and how it sucks sometimes.
    flowers out of someones back.. ? Oh well