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Doing What Must Be Done. Or Not. You Choose.

By Mark Riffey

Change is hard.

We often don’t make a change because just thinking about it tends to be unpleasant, never mind the change itself.

We’ll think about it and mull it over and consider our options like we do about stopping for gas. We’ll glance at the pump as we pass by and put off the inevitable until the needle falls into that “below-the-E” zone where you know you’re in trouble if you don’t stop soon.

The decision to pull over and take 10 minutes to ensure that you can continue for hours or days takes just an instant. Yet many of us wait until forced to do it.

What actions are you waiting to be forced into? What would change if you didn’t wait?

It’s about the pain
Jim Rohn used to say “We don’t change until the pain of change becomes worse than the change of same.”

Yet we know better. Every day people make a decision not to fix something, change their mindset (or at least start down that path) or deal with the 500 lb gorilla in the room.

I sit in meetings with regularity where the obvious thing that has to be faced is ignored as if time will make it go away. Every day, the cost of not facing that thing increases.

Yet we continue to stall.

Why?

In the past, some have proposed that we’re afraid of reaching the destination we claim we’ve sought for years. In a few cases, that might be true, but I suspect that for the majority of people and businesses, advance thought might never have gone that far.

What important task have you avoided thinking about this month? What would happen if you forced yourself to focus on it for 15 minutes?

Procrastination
How many times have you thought about a problem you wanted to solve, then bought something (a book, service, etc) to help you address it – and then did nothing with the resource?

Our minds get satisfaction from the purchase. That little bit of dopamine is enough to pacify some of us. It pretends to be action.

We stop on the first rung of the ladder, or the second, or worst, the last.

When it comes to the most important thing you’re putting off, what rung are you on? Do you have more trouble starting or finishing?

Inertia
The trouble with inertia is that it seems to sprout from a smaller version of itself. It does this without water, sunshine or even MiracleGro.

Yesterday’s inertia morphs tomorrow’s seemingly insurmountable mental castle surrounded by alligator-infested waters. It grows like interest on a credit card bill. Every day, its slightly heavier weight eats away at you, your life and the stuff that needs to get done.

What’s the source of your inertia? Worse yet, what feeds it?

Overwhelm
Every marketer knows that if you present too many choices to a prospect, they’ll often choose nothing. They’ll….procrastinate, secretly hoping that the list will shrink and make the selection easier.

It isn’t much different than a todo list with 300 items on it or a TV listing with 300 channels or that restaurant menu with 40 appetizers.

Overwhelm breeds inertia. Would half as many choices help you get moving?

Momentum
There are two kinds of inertia. The kind we just talked about – the bad kind – is the inertia that keeps you from taking the first step, the next one or the last one.

With just one step, the bad kind transforms into the smallest instance of good inertia. Movement. It creates momentum, however small.

That first bit of movement spawns more. Every little decision you make in your day either contributes to it or undermines it.

Think about the little things that hurt your momentum. Stop doing them or at least, do them less often.

Think about the little things that fuel your momentum. Do more of them, however tiny.

Essential Keys
If you must, start with the smallest thing. Then the next size up. Build upon each tiny victory, even if it’s something as simple as sticking a stamp on an envelope or writing one page of that book.

The small victories are like tinder and kindling for a fire.

Do what must be done. Start right now. One tiny step can turn it around.

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, contact him on Twitter, or email him at [email protected].