The Science of Success
- Part 3 -

L Biren Singh *

b) How to become action oriented?

“Do what you can, with what you have where you are” – Theodore Roosvelt

“End of procrastination is the beginning of action”. We all have some tasks or goals to complete or achieve. It is only possible through instinctive action. In fact, procrastination is an impediment to progress. If we have to be in action, we must know about the followings :-

i) Courage :- “Destiny is created by the courage you show.” Courage to take action, courage to come out of the comfort zone which is created by yourself and courage to face the challenges posed by the life.

These are courages required to defeat the procrastination. When you decide to act rather than being passive and keep your efforts consistently towards your goal. As such, you are starting to move a step ahead on the way to create your destiny.

ii) Determination :- It is a factor which plays a very important role in achieving success. When you are determined towards something, your brain starts passing a clear cut message to your body. It says “Act and achieve”, “act and achieve” and “act and achieve”.

iii) Find alike :- Like attracts like. If you want the defeat procrastination start keeping a company of action oriented people; it will give you the ways to proceed in the right direction and to make strategies to move forward.

iv) Comfort zone = Coffin box : Comfort zone is like a coffin that one develops for himself. It does not allow one to look at the realistic and keeps him in fallacy. In fact, the hides himself from the challenges of life and losses his instinctive will to resist and survive.

He stops fighting, the challenges and feel safe in his comfort zone. But in reality, he makes himself vulnerable to the threats and challenges of life and suffers for the rest of his life in self-made coffin.

v) Appraisal : - Self appraisal and peer review is the key to move to the next stage of our goal-achievement.

It helps us in identifying our weaknesses and strengths, helps in self-actualization and makes us what we are expected to be. Do it regularly, ask your parents, brothers, sisters, friends and seniors for your review.

vi) Improvement :- Always look for the improvement required in you. Keep oneself equipped with the necessities of life and other required skills and focus more on “Value Addition”.

a) Take responsibility, keep in mind that you are responsible for whatever you are.
b) Don’t cry that you are not privileged as privilege is something what yourself created.
c) Action is necessary, so act today, tomorrow will be too late.

If you are active and calculative, you can add an extra hour, day or month to your life by managing the time that we lose in procrastination, and this extra-time can be used for advancement in all spheres of life. You can work on value addition, can nourish your hobby and can take a big leap in life towards winning battle.

vii) Set an action plan :
a) Look at your mission statement.
b) Determine priorities and write them down.
c) Be responsible wherever you are.
d) Don’t give excuses in your life.
e) Act now as Margaret Michelle said in her famous novel “Gone with the wind” that” Tomorrow never comes as tomorrow is another day”.
f) Set deadlines and Honour them.
g) Sow such habits as reap productive ones.

viii) Learn “80/20 Rules” :– As per “80/20 Rule” “80% of outcomes come from 20% of you actions”. It is 20% of your activities which brings 80% result. We need to assess and prioritize those 20% of our actions which bring 80% of result.

Let us take it in another way, we waste a lot of our precious time doing unimportant and unproductive things, and pay a little attention to the important work. We spend 80% of our time doing wasteful tasks and hardly give 20% time to the meaningful tasks. Suppose if you spend 80% of your time on social works and 20% of your time on your studies in a day, you can never expect good masks.

Observe where you spend your time. And if it is as per 80/20 rule as explained above, change it into your favour and start spending 80% or more of your precious time doing meaningful and productive tasks and activities.

Let’s understand the terms in simple ways. 20% of the topics of your book brings 80% masks in exam. 20% of your client bring 80% of your revenue. 20% employees may bring 80% of output from your business. 20% of the foods you eat bring 80% nutrition you require from food.

Here, if you realize that what topics are more important for your exam, you can save your time and consequently gain good marks by their thorough revision. If you identify the clients, who contribute to 80% of your revenue, you can serve them better and generate more revenue.

If you know, which employee brings the most of your output, you can reward them and increase your business too. The realisation of nutritious food items and the quantity to be taken, gives the option to enjoying good health with smaller meals.

ix) Put your challenges a little more than the previous ones, set tough goals, and if you feel that you are not of the position where you want to be, try harder. Walk an extra mile, make action plan, and put extra efforts to raise the level of your thinking process, so as to give yourself more opportunity and keep active. Use Scheduler.

x) Keep an eye on your actions, action brings consequences so be cautious while choosing the course of action.

xi) Select your works in accordance with your interest, because it keeps you engaged, focussed, creative and energetic. You don’t get tired easily. Albert Einstein, famous scientist said that if you are taking to a young beautiful girl even hour will appear to be our second, and if you are standing on red, hot coal, one second will appear as one hour. So love your work.

To be continued....