Take Action Every Day to Gain Traction

A Wake-up Call to Action

Once upon a time, there was a 37-year old woman who had a wake up call when her mother had a heart attack. For the past three-years she had not taken care of herself. She walked about 5 to 10 miles every day when she lived in San Francisco. After she moved to Sonoma, she learned to her disappointment that much of the town was not a walking friendly place. She couldn’t walk everywhere as she had in the city. So her fitness suffered.

She made up her mind to get in shape. Her work schedule and commute meant that she was away from home about 12-hours every day. So she came up with a strategy to do something small every day. She started by buying one piece of equipment, a stair stepping machine. She began her road back to fitness with a commitment of five minutes the first day. She added one minute every day until she reached one-hour on the stair-stepper.

In time she added other exercises and increased her fitness level. She continues to exercise intelligently, making adjustments as need. Her results are easy to see.

Flash Forward 25 years

The woman in the story is me.  I am now 61 years old. Since I began working out at 37 (after 3-years of being a coach potato after I moved from San Francisco to Sonoma), I have rarely missed a day of doing some form of exercise. In fact, I exercised regularly during the year I had cancer and even when I was undergoing chemotherapy. Because of my commitment to myself, my body is strong. I made some adjustments to my workout during my chemotherapy.  Sticking with my fitness routine helped me get through those hard days. I am not a gym-rat. I pay attention to how I feel and I take time off when my body lets me know I need to rest.

For me, maintaining a regular schedule is important in everything I do.  I do take time off when I need it. In fact, I have been working with physical therapist to help me regain my core strength. I find that when I take the time to honor myself by doing some form of exercise each day, it pays off big dividends.

Taking action every day to gain traction really does work. Practicing this method of taking small actions every day is easy to apply to almost any project.  I am guessing none of you wrote your book in a single day. I’m also guessing that none of you learned everything you know in a single day.

Start by making a plan

If you like working on computers there are many ways you can create a plan of action. You might put all your ideas on a spreadsheet. Another way to get your ideas on paper if you will is to use a mind map. A yellow pad and a pencil will also do the trick it doesn’t really matter how you get the information in one place you can see it. What matters is that you create a plan. Having a plan means you can identify what you want to have happen and you can measure whether or not you have succeeded in reaching your goal.

You can doing anything for 10-minutes

I’m a strong advocate of getting unstuck by using a timer. In fact I used my timer this morning to help me with a project. I set the timer for 10-minutes and when the timer goes off I’m done. The important thing about this: for that 10-minutes I focus on the task at hand and I don’t allow any interruptions or distractions. I’ve used the 10-minute method successfully for writing projects, filing, packing and unpacking, and yes, even for exercising when I’m not in the mood to do it. Try the 10-minute method for marketing.

10 Things You Can Do in 10-minutes

1. Google yourself

2. Outline a blog post

3. Make a phone call

4. Create a mind map

5. Post to Facebook

6. Find an image for your post

7. Record a short video

8. Start a spreadsheet for your blog posts

9. Look up your favorite author and visit their website

10. Put 10-minute marketing appointments into your schedule

This method gives you a win every day. Try this for 30 days and see what changes. Share your stories by posting a comment.