Clarity & bravery mean nothing without action

I begin almost every consultation, discovery call or presentation with two questions:

1. What do you REALLY want from your business?

2. Why is that SO important to you, that you are prepared to take brave action in order to make it happen?

They also sit at the heart of my book, repeated at the end of every chapter to invite the reader to sense-check their previous answers.

Inevitably, our first response to either question doesn't go deep enough – it doesn't connect us with the things that are so intrinsically important to us, we simply cannot resist doing something about them.

And THAT is when the magic happens.

Clarity & bravery mean nothing without action

The first of the two questions, above, invites crystal clarity. It defines your personal version of success (the one that makes all your hard work, hesitation, frustration and failure worth it). The second question invites bravery – now you can see where it is you're going; it becomes easier to take that first step.

But you still need to take that first step.

"Do. Or do not. There is no try" - Yoda

I have some problems with the venerable Jedi Master on this quote (also in the book), but we'll skip past those for the time being in order to stick to the point:

• Nothing changes unless you do

• Nothing moves forward until you do

  
  

Knowing what you want and feeling ready to do something about it... that is an immensely valuable first step. What comes next, sits entirely within you because (and I'll say it again), clarity & bravery mean nothing without action.

"I'm not ready, I'm not good enough, I don't have time... what if I fail?"

Well, these all sound familiar! :-)

The Four Fears® are our biggest obstacles to action. They undermine our bravery and question our clarity. They look for shortcuts and attempt to protect us from the risk of doing something new; something important... something that might actually delight us when we step past the barrier of our own Comfort Zone and into 'adventure'.

Those limiting thoughts can be rooted in deeper, historic beliefs. And we need to address those roots before our conviction can truly outweigh our hesitation.

Traditional talking therapies can do this. They can anaesthetise the fear so that we are able to proceed and create a body of evidence to prove how capable and deserving we are.

As that body of evidence grows, so the balance shifts in favour of our progress – both momentum and resilience reinforce each action. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a great example of this kind of approach (read more about CBT on the UK's NHS website).

There may also be deeper work to do on those fears (to permanently decouple them from a more significant event in your past). I'm always here to help if that is a conversation you would like to have.