One of the components of my MaxxMethod is Do It Now! This component is designed to aid my life coach clients in taking action and working towards accomplishing their goals and realizing their dreams. In my two decades of working with clients, one of things I hear the most is that people often understand what it is they desire and how want to live their lives, but when it comes to executing, they are incapable of putting their ideas and desires into action.
In many respects, we often find that we do not understand why we do the things we do and—most importantly—why we avoid taking the steps necessary to become the sort of person we desire to be. As the months turn into years, many people end up looking back on their lives and find themselves full of regrets. If only they had taken action, their lives would have led to more successful outcomes and greater personal satisfaction.
One of the greatest inhibitors we face—the one that serves as the greatest obstacle for most everyone—is fear. It is fear of taking a risk, fear of failure, fear of rejection, and fear of being different that ultimately keeps us on the couch, dreaming about living the sort of life we desire. We look at ourselves and fear that may be we are not as talented or smart or strong as we believe ourselves to be.
When we fail to Do It Now! we, at the very least, can take solace in the sad reality that our lack of trying—if anything—did not expose our weakness to ourselves and the people we interact with. Because we did not take action, we did not try, we did not expose ourselves as longing for something more, we did not actually fail.
This is a sad way for anyone to lead their life and is indictive of the attitudes that underlay may of the issues my clients face. What we ultimately come to understand, often in old age and far too late, that the greatest failure of all is the failure to not try.
When we become mindful of our fear and recognize the power it has over us, we can endeavor to make the changes needed to confront it head on. Those who suffer from anxiety or any type of phobia may never be fully healed of the pathology that keeps them stuck, but the amazing thing about those who work to meet their fear head on is that though they may never be fully cured, their exposure to that fear—over time—makes them braver, bolder, and more inclined to take action.
You may hear it from performers or championship level athletes that swear they still get butterflies before they take the stage or field, but each time they step into the spotlight and give it their all, they get better at facing that fear. Mike Tyson, arguably the most intimidating and powerful heavyweight of all time, once confessed:
Do It Now! is about finding the boldness necessary to take action.
I come out. I have supreme confidence but I’m scared to death. I’m totally afraid. I’m afraid of everything. I’m afraid of losing. I’m afraid of being humiliated. But I was totally confident.
The closer I get to the ring the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get. The closer, the more confidence I get.
All through my training I’ve been afraid of this man. I thought this man might be capable of beating me. I’ve dreamed of him beating me. I always stayed afraid of him. The closer I get to the ring I’m more confident. Once I’m in the ring, I’m a God! No-one can beat me.
It is when we face our demons and—that greatest demon of all—fear, we become braver, stronger, and more inclined to keep pushing ourselves forward.
When my clients take part in the MaxxMethod program, I show them how we take our ideas, hopes, and desires and take action towards making them a reality. Some of the simple practices we can undertake to get us to Do It Now! include:
When we Do It Now! we slay the dragon of fear that leads to inaction.
Working with a Life Coach
Rather than remaining stuck and well on the way to an old age plagued by regret and thoughts of “what if,” each of us deserves the opportunity to try. And when we try—whether we succeed or fail—we become braver and bolder and more confident. That confidence leads us to a place where engaging in the work necessary to better our life is not such a scary prospect.
When we Do It Now!, we don’t rid ourselves of the fear that would prevent us from becoming the sort of people we long to be, we become stronger than that fear and come to view it not as an all-powerful entity to be avoided, but a dragon we are more than happy to battle and slay, time and time again.
Or to put it another way, as Teddy Roosevelt once stated, we become the man [or woman] in the arena.
