For twelve years I was miserable, I was at a job that I absolutely hated. I had no college degree, I had no special skills, and I was stuck. At times it got so bad I thought about quitting on the spot and taking any job, even working fast food.
I clearly remember the day when I said enough was enough; I had to find more fulfilling work. I was super excited and pumped; I told everyone who would listen that I’m moving on to something much better.
You know how that goes right? You’re all excited for about two weeks, then reality sets in and slowly you lose momentum, that’s exactly what happened to me. After those two weeks of excitement I was making every excuse in the book as to why I had to keep that job that made me miserable.
It was almost one year later before I finally got fed up enough to do something about my work. Why does it take something extreme happening to really wake us up?
There were some deaths in my immediate circle and some crazy things that happened with my work that finally pushed me over the edge.
Getting through the initial excitement
It’s only natural and it’s even good to get excited about moving onto something better. The key is to turn that excitement into something more, you have to take action.
I’m not telling you that you have to be living the life of your dreams in a week; it’s going to take time. What I’m saying is take that initial excitement and right away start taking baby steps towards your goal.
After the failure to take action the first time, I knew I needed to do more the second go around. My dream was and is to be a writer, so when I got fed up and excited to move on, guess what I did? I wrote!
The company I worked for got bought out by a bigger company and there were some changes that made everyone miserable. I wanted to vent so I turned to what I loved, writing. I wrote about everything that was going on and after a few weeks I realized I had a good amount of material.
I ended up turning that journal into my first book and if I hadn’t taken that initial action I would have quit like the first time. When you decide to make changes, to move on to something better, enjoy that honeymoon phase. However, give yourself the best possible chance for success by taking some form of action!
Use motivation and determination as your tools for success
So you’ve decided to take things to the next level, congratulations! Beware of a silent enemy that wants to and has derailed many: doubt. Doubt will tell you that you’ll never make it, that no matter what you do it won’t be good enough.
That’s where your determination has to kick in; it has to beat the doubt up. How bad do you want it? How tired are you of settling for less then you deserve? Too many times in the past we have made excuses and settled, I’m determined to have more, I hope you are too.
Whenever you’re making changes and taking things to that next level you have to use motivation by focusing on the “why” of what you’re doing. When you think of the “what” and “how”, it’s easy to get frustrated at how hard it will be.
Let me give you an example: when my kids were younger they wanted me to build a tree house for them. When I sat down and did some research (the how) on how to put the thing together (the what), I was thinking of ways I could get out of the whole ordeal.
When I was ready to give up and tell my kids forget it, then I remembered the “whyâ€. Why would I go through all that frustration? It’s was an easy answer: my kids. More specifically I started thinking about all the amazing memories my kids would have with the tree house. Focusing on why I was building it was the motivation I needed to push me past anything else I was feeling.
When you want to achieve success, and when you want to make changes that last a lifetime, have determination to get through anything. Then focus on the bigger picture, focus on why you’re doing what you’re doing, let that be your motivation.
The funny thing about taking action
As I’ve told you I was fed up but it took me awhile to finally take action. You want to hear something crazy? When I did take action, it actually worked! Now I want to preface this by telling you it was a lot of hard work:
Since that first day of action I have self-published two eBooks and sold over 50,000 copies. I have started coaching people and consulting with companies. I have started speaking literally all over the world. I have been interviewed by some of the best, this year truly has been a dream come true.
I have done everything I dreamed of doing and now I’m dreaming of more, the key to all this was finally taking action.
Have you taken action? Will you take action?
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Kimanzi Constable is an author who has self-published two eBooks and sold over 45,000 copies. His first published book will be out this February (Sound Wisdom Books). He is an international speaker (3 countries and 8 states), coach and consultant. His mission is to help people live the full and abundant life they deserve. You can find him at Tales of Work.
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