Ep# 041: The Cost of Not Taking Action
Did you know there’s a cost to standing still?
That in fact, you’re not standing still. When we’re out of a state of action, we’re actually deteriorating. In our careers, in our relationships, our health, even our state of mind.
So this episode is dedicated to the power of taking action, how to do it and understanding the steep price we pay for thinking we’re standing still.
We’re either getting stronger…or we’re withering away.
This is your wakeup call. It’s the reminder that at the core of who we are as humans, we are doing one of two thing - we’re growing or dying. We’re improving or declining. We’re getting stronger or we’re withering away. And that’s in all things.
My husband and I have been expanding in our businesses lately and I think from the outside sometimes it looks like people or companies that are growing have it all figured out and they’re in their stride. It’s easy to look on with envy or in awe as they hit new milestones and achieve the accomplishments.
But remember when you were a kid and you’d lay in bed at night kept away by the aching in your joints as your body was actually growing and expanding? I do! I remember sleeping with ice packs on my knees hoping they’d go numb enough for me to fall asleep. I was the tall kid at school and I remember my basketball teammates saying how cool it was that I had grown so much in one year but they had no idea what my body had to go through to get there. The aches and pains, the awkwardness that comes with being a new body that grew three inches in one year. The uncertainty of quite literally being at new heights…
It’s the same thing in business and in life.
So as you might see us expanding and growing, you don’t see Michael and I up at 11pm racking our brains over budgets and goal sheets. You don’t see me in tears because of another failure I thought for sure would be a win. You don’t see the gray hairs I’m regularly dying or the battle of hitting new heights that we’re not yet qualified for.
But I’ll tell you this - all the growth and all the good through all those pains is coming from movement. It’s coming from action. Even if the action leads to a failure, it’s ultimately getting us to the next steps.
Taking action steps means there is growth & movement
We were sitting down talking through numbers and getting ready to make our next hire within the company. This is something we take very seriously because we know that when we bring someone onto our team they’re essentially joining our family. But even more important than that, we’re possibly supporting their’s.
My husband was extra stressed this time feeling that pressure of making sure that we could fully support this person in the ways we want to and he felt this heaviness and burden of being afraid of letting them down. And in that moment I felt this unbelievable calm wash over me and I remembered that in all of it, we’re being guided.
So hiring this person is an action step we need to take even though we can’t fully predict the outcome. And their decision to accept our offer is an action step they need to take even though they can’t fully predict the outcome. So best case scenario and certainly what we’re aiming for - it’s a match made in heaven and we’re all happy. Worst case scenario, it’s not the right fit and ultimately we have to part ways.
But either way, this action step HAS TO HAPPEN. It’s ultimately guiding both parties towards growth and movement.
On the flip side of that, we could choose not to hire out of fear of letting them down or anticipating the negatives that might never happen and we end up right where we are, but decaying because we aren’t doing what we need to do to move forward.
Or that hire could choose to stay in their safer job because of what may or may not happen, but then they are still in a career they don’t like, not working towards any positive change towards the life they’re dreaming about.
Hell yes, there are risks.
Take the leap
But at some point we have to measure the risks of standing still. The cost of NOT doing business.
I’d rather risk my pennies and save my regrets.
So what can you do if you’re in that place of what you may think is sitting still - when in reality you’re deteriorating?
It’s easy to say just take an action step! Just do it. Take the leap.
There are ways you can identify what you should be doing.
Choose a category of your life…
Maybe you’re running a successful business, but your marriage is crap. Focus on your marriage then and come up with the things you really want in your marriage that aren’t present now.
Or maybe your health has been a top priority, but you are still just trying to perfect the plan before really up-leveling your business. Take some time to tap into the vision again of the thing in question…
You can identify what needs your attention by doing an audit. I like to do this quarterly and in the shownotes I’ll link to the life assessment I use for my clients to help them with this process. You’re going to rate the different buckets or areas of your life that mean a lot to you - parenthood, finances, relationships, health, business, etc…
Then look at the ones where you scored low. You’re likely not giving them the attention they need so they’re pretty stalled out.
But take it one step further and prioritize these buckets.
For example, just because you ranked your friendships a 2, maybe that’s not a top priority and what you’re desperate to improve right now. Maybe it’s a two because it’s finally time that you get that brand off the ground or pour into your marriage or take back your health. So look at the 3 lowest categories and rank them by importance to you (this next part is important) BASED ON THE 3 YEAR VISION FOR YOUR LIFE.
It’s not that you’re always going to neglect your friendships or even neglect them at all, but maybe they don’t get to be a top priority. This should also be based on your value system in addition to your goals and vision.
For example, for me there are certain categories that I never want to fall below a 5 or 6. Those are my marriage, my relationship with my children and my health. But there are other that I know can be out of balance depending on my season, vision and goals.
You have to decide that part.
You have to be willing to fail.
There also has to be a surrender of perfection and fear of failure.
This is the tough part and what I’ve struggled with the most over the years of launching businesses and scaling business and pitching myself along the way…
I want to have it all figured out before I start. That’s still my natural inclination after years of knowing that it doesn’t work that way.
This podcast didn’t come to life for years, because I kept convincing myself that I had to grow my audience first or develop more content or have all my episodes planned. And then I decided I was going to show up to a mic from a closet and hit record and it was born.
You want the things to be born - the dream - you have to show up for it.
You have to be willing to suck at it. You have to be willing to fail at it.
I remember when I started my branding strategy business and in the early days I was hustling taking on one-on-one clients and it wasn’t pretty. But truthfully when I started, I wasn’t ACTUALLY running a business because I had the website and the social media content and the outlines for what I would teach and the proposals drawn up but you guys - I wasn’t sending them to anyone! I was paralyzed by the fear of people telling me no or that I’m not the right person for them or that I’m some kind of fraud.
So with shaking hands, I still remember hitting send on my first proposal to a client that felt so far out of my league and I was terrified. And guess what - first off, I didn’t die. But you know what happened when I finally sent it…
I GOT A NO.
And I’m still here to tell the tale. My business has grown exponentially since that day. And that attempt was the action step I needed to have the courage to do it over, and over and over until I fine-tuned my process and until it stuck.
I learned how I could do it better. I learned the art of the follow-up. I learned that it wasn’t going to be easy. And guess what the best part was?
I FELL MADLY IN LOVE WITH THE CHALLENGE. I loved that I didn’t know if after working my butt off if it would end in a yes or a no. I started to love those nights of staying up late knowing that I was working towards my dream. I loved chasing it and cultivating it through my own dirty hands.
It was the same way I lost almost 60 pounds. It’s the same way I’ve rebounded from parenting failures. It’s the same way I’ll continue to scale this podcast and this brand.
I’ll just stay in a space of massive action, because I know that even if the action step is the wrong one, I’m not dying. I’m not deteriorating.